


Royal State of Mind: An Oxventure Tale

by tnnyoh



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, OutsideXbox, Oxventure
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, False Memories, Gen, Humor, Magic, Psychological Drama, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-03-06 03:10:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18842422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tnnyoh/pseuds/tnnyoh
Summary: The sequel to The Miserable Manor, our gang finds themselves in yet more trouble as they fight against angry orcs, crazy aristocrats, and someone who really wants revenge.





	1. The World as It Should Be

**Author's Note:**

> This is the sequel to The Miserable Manor, if you haven't read that, this probably won't make much sense as they are directly connected. Check it out!

It was a dreary day, clouds rolled over the skies of Abelforth, a town in the village of Hertfordshire.  There were people starting to open their shops and others heading to the town square.

 The wind was steady but occasionally a bit loud and if one were really paying attention, it almost sounded as though it carried a word within it, if one really stood still to listen, it sounded like you could hear it.

_Forget_

In the largest manor up on a hill resides a young man who opened his eyes as the wind rattled his against the windows.  He sat up and looked around, he had the distinct feeling he had a dream that he couldn’t quite remember, and the details were slipping away the longer he was awake.

He pushed the covers off of him and walked over to the window, making sure the latch was on tight enough to stop the wind rattling it.

There was a knock on his door “Come in” He said,

“I thought the young Milquetoast would like to come down for breakfast” The man said, he was one of many of those employed at the manor. Though try as he might, Percy couldn’t recall his name.

“Of course, I’ll be down in a moment.”

“There is an outfit freshly laid out for the young Milquetoast” The man said helpfully before closing the door.

Percy looked at his hands, there were several cuts on his skin and he didn’t know where they had come from. It looked like he had gotten into a boxing match in his sleep. He shook it off and got dressed, then headed downstairs into the large dining hall where the cooks had already set out a breakfast for him and his father.

It wasn’t a rare occasion for his father to be at breakfast, Percy usually avoided him during this time, opting to wait for lunch, but he was far too hungry to care, it felt like he hadn’t eaten in days.

He started scarfing down anything in sight, occasionally without the use of a fork or spoon. His father tutted from the other side of the table.

“Now now, don’t be in such a rush, Percival” He said, taking a regal sip of his tea. “And do eat with your mouth closed, you are not an urchin”

Percy closed his mouth and started silently chewing his food, swallowing it in one hard gulp.  “I feel as though I haven’t eaten days” He said “I’m just hungry”

“Be hungry in a dignified way, my son”

“What are the tiny spoons for again?”

His father rolled his eyes “Percy, don’t be childish”

The wind rattled against the windows of the dinning room and Percy looked over, through the drapes he could see dark clouds.

“Are the horses back in the stables?”

Lord Milquetoast nodded “They were tended to this morning” He said and then took a bite of food. Percy hated the way he did this, he would cut the tiniest piece of food with knife and fork, even if it wasn’t that kind of food, and would carefully put it to his mouth as if he was expecting it to be poison.

And then he took hours to chew and swallow in a manner that he deemed “proper”, meals with him were obnoxiously long and tedious.

Percy pushed his empty plate to the side and downed the lukewarm tea, wiping his face on his sleeve and pushing the chair back to get up, the sound of it scraping against the floor was quite loud and made his father wince.

“Excuse me, Where do you think your going?”

“Back to my room, of course” He said calculatedly, starting to walk away from the table.

“Percival”

He stopped in his tracks and reluctantly turned back to the table “Yes, father?”

“Why don’t you tend to the horses?”

“You said they had already been tended to”

“I am having company over tonight and I would like the horses to be calm, and not make noise while said company is here.”

“But why can’t I just go to my room? The horses should be fine. They aren’t as needy as all that”

“Percival” His father said in a disapproving tone “I am your father and I am asking you to do something”

Percy felt something strange, like trying to recall a dream he had forgotten but shook off the feeling “Alright, Father.” He said, going to head out to the stables before he turned back around “Do you need me to check on the garden?”

“Actually, I do. I believe Rosaline has fallen ill and won’t be coming in today.”  He said, taking another sip of his tea.  “And another thing, I don’t want any funny business from you during my company”

“Exactly what does that mean?” Percy asked incredulously

“It simply means that I don’t want any of your loutish attitude this time”

Percy made a scoffing noise in response, which his father tutted “Now now, head out to care for the garden and the horses.”

Percy sighed and headed to the garden first, there was a side door in the main hall that led right out that way, he looked up and saw the dark stormy morning sky and heard a low rumble in the distance.  The ground was already wet, as if it had rained for quite some time the previous night, but he couldn’t recall hearing it.

He stepped off the stone stairs into the garden and saw that some of the garden had seemingly been dug up.  He went closer to investigate when he heard something behind him.

“Percy!” his father shouted after him “What in the name of all that is good are you doing?”“

“You told me to tend to the gardens” He said simply and then indicated the pile of dirt “It looks as though this dirt’s been dug up”

“Yes, by Rosaline before she fell ill, come back inside and head out to check the horses like I asked of you”

“You didn’t ask, you _commanded_.”

Lord Milquetoast considered this for a moment and then nodded “Alright then, Will you _please_ check on the horses”

“See, wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Percy said sarcastically as he walked back to the house.

“I could do without the attitude, Percival. It makes you seem like a small child”

“You treat me like a small child, it’s only fair that I take up the role”

His father sighed deeply “Percival”

“Sorry, Father” he looked down at the floor “I will tend to the horses now”

He headed out to the front door and made his way around the property to the stables, they had a number of horses on the property that were usually roaming free but when there was a storm coming, they often put them back in the stables to protect them from the rain.

He walked into the stables and heard the collective noise of about eleven horses breathing heavily through their nostrils.

He had an odd feeling standing in the stables alone, it was like something wasn’t right, the same feeling he had this morning, like a dream slipping away from him.  He shook it off and picked up a brush, heading over to the nearest horse, Damien, an all white highland pony with a very brushy coat.

“What exactly do you do to get so muddy?” He asked the horse, who simply exhaled through it’s nose in response “I mean, father said you were just tended to and yet here we are, you, covered in mud”

The horse started moving it’s hooves back and forth nervously, Percy stopped brushing the horse and looked around “What is it?” He said “There’s nothing there boy, you’re getting skittish”

Damien was usually very fond of Percy, but today he seemed increasingly uncomfortable and irate near the young man. He kicked out his hind legs and started breathing heavier than was normal for a horse who had just been tended to.

It happened suddenly, and it happened fast, the horse kicked off the back wall and knocked him over into the opposite wall, Damien then took advantage of the gate being open and ran out the front of the stables. He felt his head throbbing from smacking directly into the stable wall but he shook it off quickly as he ran after Damien.

“Damien!” he shouted “What the hell is wrong with you!?”

As he rushed after the horse he realized he forgot the lead and halter. He skidded to a stop as the horse ran out to the edge of the forest near the manor. “Damien, come back!” he shouted again “I’m not going to hurt you”

The horse shyly trotted closer and he saw his moment to come up to it, reaching out his hand carefully, reading the horse’s movements and body language before gently setting his hand on the horse.

“Are you alright?” he asked “You got so spooked back there, you’re acting like you don’t even know me”

The horse nervously neighed and started to trot back to the stables on his own, Percy followed from a distance to make sure he was calming down. He looked around the stables “Anyone else going to freak out on me?” he asked the horses, they seemed a bit less interested.

Four horses at the end of the stables caught his attention, because he was almost certain he had never seen them before.  He cautiously walked over to their section and looked over them “Hello?” He said “I… don’t recall ever seeing you four here before.”

The horses didn’t react oddly to him or anything, but he was certain they had always just had eleven horses in these stables, now there were fifteen.

He shook the feeling off once more and left the stables, heading to the stairs back into the manor, it started to rain lightly as he made his way across the grass, he headed back into the dining room to find his father, but the man was gone, instead, a woman bustled about cleaning the place.

“Where is my father?”

“He is in his office, but he requested to be left alone”

“Okay, have we always had fifteen horses?”

She stopped dusting for a moment and gave him an odd look, she then laughed awkwardly “For quite some time now, did you hit your head last night in bed or something?”

“No, I… I just could have sworn we only had eleven”

“Your father got the other four when you we-” She started, but was stopped when Lord Milquetoast entered the room, clearing his throat “Anya, I need to have a word with you, I should have done this already but there is a staff meeting in my office, it is important”

She shrugged slightly at Percy and turned to the Lord “Yes, Sir. I’ll be there right away.”

He watched them leave and his father gave him a warning look, presumably meaning “Don’t spy on us”, Percy was known to eavesdrop on his father when he was feeling bored. He decided to head back to his bedroom instead, when he shut the door of his room he turned to face his bed.

There was a feeling that passed quickly, but it felt like a tug at the back of his neck, he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling he was forgetting something.

 

* * *

Merilwen opened her eyes and was nearly blinded by the sun moving out from behind the cloud cover, her and the others had fallen asleep in the town square near the fountain, most of them on the benches surrounding the area, Dob decided to sleep half in and out of the fountain. Everyone was sleeping, and Katie had left back to the tavern, or to steal more things from The Joyful Damnation.

 She heard a noise, the sound of boots hitting against the cobbled stone, She looked up and saw Corazón walking towards her. She sat up “Corazón!?”

She pushed herself off the bench and stood up to hug him but he put out a hand to stop her “Where is the ship?” He asked, looking around at the various sleeping people.

“It’s at the other port, we should wake the others up and get out of here.” She said, Corazón nodded in agreement.

“Yes, of course. The further we are away from this place.. The better”

“Are you alright?” Merilwen asked him “You’re acting a little strange”

“No, I’m not”

He walked past her to wake the others, she sensed something was weird about him, but reasoned that it could simply be that he was tired and had a hard couple of days. He would probably be back to his normal overbearing personality as soon as they left.

The others started to stir and started to talk to Corazón about their little adventures they had when everyone was separated from each other, Corazón was speaking as little as possible, only nodding a couple of times to show the others he was listening.

“We should head to the ship” He stood up and brushed off his outfit, it looked different than Merilwen remembered

“Did you buy a new outfit, Cora?”

He didn’t respond to her, simply turning to Prudence and Dob “Where is the other port?”

“It’s that way” Prudence pointed “I mean, Katie explained it but… I’m sure it’s not that hard to find it. Just… follow me”

It didn’t take long for Prudence to lead them in the right direction towards the second port of Abelforth, Corazón looked out on two ships in the harbor and started down the path to them.  Merilwen pulled him back as the others went on ahead “Can I have a word with you?”

“I’d prefer to be on the ship, actually” He said shortly

Merilwen gave a scoff “Excuse me? What is your problem?”

“I want to get out of here, that’s my problem” He yanked away from her and continued down the path to the small port, Merilwen shook her head and sighed, following anyway.

Once in the small harbor Corazón looked between both ships for quite some time while the others chatted about their adventures, after a while, Dob noticed this strange behavior and commented on it.

“Corazón” He said “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Don”

“Dob”

“Sorry”

“Why aren’t we getting on the ship” Egbert asked, heading towards the Joyful Damnation, and only when he was on board, did Corazón follow suit.  Merilwen made a mental note to check something when she had a moment to herself.

All of them boarded the ship and Corazón went directly to the captain’s quarters, while Merilwen made her way to her own cabin and sat down on the floor, she was glad to be on the ship again after the past few days, and especially after her altercation with the angry wolf in the forest. She had a tiny mark left on her arm where it had bit her, but other than that she was fine after Dob healed her.

She took a couple of deep breaths and concentrated as hard as she could, her intent was to discover something, Corazón was acting really strange to her and she had never seen him behave that way.  She willed herself to see things that may be hidden to her.

She felt something, some kind of dark magical energy was creeping towards her from somewhere on the ship, her eyes shot open and she gasped.

“ _Corazón_ ”

 


	2. Marquess de Milquetoast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world as it should be begins to show it's imperfections, and an impostor may be the only clue to help the Oxventure Guild.

The rain started pounding against the windows and the afternoon sky was growing dark, Percy had spent the better part of the morning in his room and Lord Milquetoast had a meeting with his staff.

 “I am only going to say this once” He said quietly, causing some of the staff to lean in attempting to hear him clearer.

“Nobody is to mention Percival’s time away from this estate, nobody is to mention the rumors of his high seas adventures, and” he rolled his eyes “Do make sure to quiet the locals.”

Anya raised an eyebrow “What’s going on here?”

“None of your business” Lord Milquetoast said curtly “But it is of the utmost importance that I have discretion in this matter. Percy has been here for quite some time, he has never left the estate for adventures with others, Percy has no friends, Percy has no life. Do I make myself clear?”

Anya and the other staff members nodded in unison, when he was sure they understood he wants he dismissed them and went about his business. He was sorting papers and reading through documentation and other correspondence, he was quite focused on it until there was a knock on his door.

“Go away, Percy”

“But, Father”

“Percival” the Lord stared up at the door as if his eyes could bore through the wood and directly at his son “I am working”

There was silence, and then the sound of someone walking away, not two minutes after that silence did another noise startle the Lord out of his focus on work. It sounded like someone was trying to break the door down.

“Percival, are you throwing yourself against the door?”

“No”

He rolled his eyes and got up from his desk, walking slowly to the door and opening it, he saw his son standing there rubbing his shoulder and wincing. “What do you want?”

Percy shrugged “Attention”

“Percy, you are a moderately grown person, some would even argue that you are an adult. When are you going to sort yourself out and follow in the footsteps of those before you?”

He looked at his son, but his son was avoiding his gaze. Was this how it had always been?

Was he simply repeating the life that forced his son to run away?

 _No_ He thought, Percy left because he was too interested in those adventure stories he read, he simply read too much, all Lord Milquetoast tried to do was push his son in the right direction, to be his heir.  He was in no way responsible for his son’s most recent attempt to get attention…

But then again, what was the purpose of a new leaf if he treated Percy the same way? It was a new chance at what he wanted, an heir, a new member of the family legacy.

He wanted desperately to make his son forget it all, he wanted to change the memories he did have, but the man he hired to do just this had argued that he was asking too much

“Sir, forgive me for speaking out of turn… but what you are asking me to do, what you want me to change and remove, it’s too much, you have to keep something in there or this spell could harm him.”

“I want the memories changed”

“I’m sorry, I won’t do both. He has to keep some of them, and may I add that I worship a dark demon lord and this is the most despicable thing I’ve ever heard of. This is your _son_.

“I noticed you are still taking the money” Lord Milquetoast had said, this shut the man up, but he still wouldn’t perform the ritual the way he was asked, and as such, Percival remembered some things, unfortunately some of the things the Lord didn’t want him to remember.

If only he could re-frame it, teach his son that he wasn’t being a “bad father”, but simply a good teacher.  He took this chance to welcome his son into his office and had him sit on the banquet across from his desk, where those strange friends of his had been sitting only a few days prior.

“Percy,  I was thinking about taking you with me to Taveil on my trip. Is that something you may be interested in?”

Percy started to roll his eyes but his father stopped him “Child” he said “Dare I say if you continue to roll your eyes that way, they will stick in the back of your head?” He tutted at his son.  “Use words.”

“I don’t want to go”

“You claim you are ‘bored’ and yet you refuse to listen to me”

“Because all of your suggestions are training to be a stuffy boring aristocrat”

Unfortunately for Lord Milquetoast, one of the memories that Percy retained was his distaste for the high status life. But, the Lord knew he would be able to turn his son around on this, he knew he’d be able to change his mind.

He already had once, in a more literal sense.

“Percival, if you would actually give it some consideration, you would enjoy it”

He watched his son from behind his desk, even though he had been away for quite some time, it was almost like he never left. He took a deep breath, this was not the way he wanted things to be, but he would fix them, he would use this second chance to help Percy become a proper young man.

“ _You simply must give it a try”_ Percy said in a horrid attempt at mockery of his father.

“Percy”

“Sorry” He said, looking at the floor again.

A moment later he rose from the banquet and started riffling through the bookshelves on the other side of the room. He paused when he got to a book that had been haphazardly replaced onto the shelf.

Lord Milquetoast noticed his son pausing and watched him carefully. “What’s the matter?” he asked

“This book, it smells familiar… I… could swear I’ve-”

“They all smell like books, Percy, will you please put that back”

Percy obliged and set the book back onto the shelf, he turned to his father’s desk “I had a strange experience with Damien, he seemed to be very anxious around me, which I don’t understand. I tend to him every morning and every night, why would he have any reason to be afraid of me?”

“Horses get frightened easily, and Damien has always been like that. He acted like that with me just the other day and he sees me several times a day. You are reading too much into it”

“But what about the other four horses?”

“What other four horses?”

“The ones we didn’t have before!” Percy said loudly “I know how many horses we _had_ , and now we have more”

“Those are rescue horses, Percy. Are you that self absorbed that you simply do not notice things that are happening around you?”

Percy hesitated, and then shook it off “I suppose it’s… I-I suppose I just didn’t get enough sleep last night.”

“Quite”

His son said nothing more, he simply left the office and shut the door behind him, Lord Milquetoast could hear him walking down the halls, it was a good thing he had left, as the Lord had some planning to do regarding his son’s status in high society.

 

* * *

Merilwen rushed out the door of her cabin and made way to the Captain’s quarters door, knocking on it lightly. “Corazón?” She said.

 

Silence was her only reply, she knocked again “I need to talk to you”

“Go away”

“Cora, this is important. Please let me in”

She heard a groan of annoyance and then the door lock releasing, he opened the door and gave her a shrug “Come in, I guess”

Normally Corazón didn’t let people into his cabin because he felt it would put off the whole room’s decor, which was quite a bit much, if Merilwen was going to be honest, he had shells and sea glass collected from various trips, trinkets from the towns they had visited that he either bought, or stole, or bought and then stole the gold back from the till.

“What do you want?” He asked, arms crossed

“I want to know what’s going on with you”

“What are you talking about?” He shrugged “I don’t know what you think is going on with me, but I’m fine, Merilwen. I’m fine..”

“You’ve been acting really weird since you came back and I can’t put my finger on what is, but you’re not acting like yourself”

He swallowed nervously and then cleared his throat “I think you should leave, right now. And maybe don’t share your paranoid thoughts with the rest of the group, yeah?”

“Look” She said “I’m going to give you one chance to fess up, because I already know something is wrong with you, ‘Corazón’” She shook her head

“Get out of my cabin!” He shouted

“Not until you tell me what the hell is going on, and what happened to Corazón!” She shot back

“You must think your so clever, don’t you, wood elf?”

“I do, actually think I’m clever, all I had to do was a simple spell and it revealed that you are surrounded with magic, dark magic, the stuff Prudence would do. Now, I’m not leaving until you tell me what the hell is going on”

“I was paid, handsomely, I might add, to pretend to be whoever the hell I’m supposed to be”

Merilwen raised an eyebrow “You.. You were paid to pretend to be Corazón and you don’t even remember his name?”

The man shrugged “So maybe I’m not very good at my job, but I still get paid, don’t I?” 

“Who paid you?” Merilwen asked, though she already knew the answer to the question.

“Some aristocrat, he told me that I was to pretend to be his son and find all of you people to trick you for a while”

“Did he say how long a while was supposed to be?”

“No, but look.. I’m not going to let you get in the way of my gold”

Before he could advance on her, Merilwen willed vines to tie themselves around, restraining his arms and decreasing his mobility, he fell to the floor of the cabin like a tree when it gets cut from the bottom and Merilwen knelt down beside him.

“I know a few tricks, do you really want to mess with me?”

“I want my goddamn money!” He grunted “I took the job for payment, not to get attacked by nature”

“We can’t give you as much as Milquetoast” Merilwen said “But.. Did he even tell you that there was a mad orc trying to kill his son?”

The man looked up at her, his expression worried “What?”

“I heard it myself from Egbert, who was with him when this orc turned mad. His name is Tobias, you better watch out for him if you’re going to look exactly like a man he wants dead” She said casually.

“What the hell” The man groaned in anger “I need to have a little word with Lord Idiotface”

Merilwen laughed at this “You know, that’s exactly what the real Cora would have said”

“I can’t believe this!” He whined “I turned down a different job for this one and you’re telling me that my life is in danger?”

“It is if you continue going around like that”

“It’s… it’s a spell, but I uh.. Had it done for me”

“By who?”

“Warlock, I don’t know his name or where he is or… how to reverse the spell or how long it lasts for.”

Merilwen sighed “We have a warlock on board, Prudence. She may be able to help you reverse the spell, but… you have to come clean”

“Fine” He said “I’ll do it, but you better not screw me over”

She ended the spell and the vines came off of him easily, like they were never there in the first place, she helped him up and led him to the cabin door “We’re going to do this together, I want to make sure you don’t run off”

She pulled him by the sleeve of his coat and led him to the deck where everyone had gathered to watch Prudence and Dob try to arm wrestle. “Guys” she began

“Not now, Merilwen” Prudence said “I’m trying to concentrate”

“This is really important”

“So is beating Dob at this stupid game”

Merilwen rolled her eyes, careful to keep a tight hold on the man’s arm. “I really think you guys should listen to m-” she began, the impostor threw her into the table and made to run off onto the docks but Merilwen was too quick for him, yet again causing vines to come out of the ground and curl around him. He fell backwards and hit his head on the ship’s dock, looking up at the four adventurers staring at him.

“Yeah, that’s what I was trying to tell you… This absolute gentleman is not Corazón, it looks like the real Corazón’s father paid off a warlock to magic someone to look like our friend to trick us.”

“Can we kill him?”

Merilwen groaned “No, we’re not killing him.”

Prudence frowned

“As a matter of fact, you’re going to help him reverse the spell”

 

* * *

Percy looked into the ornate mirror hanging on the wall of the bathroom after splashing his face with water. There was something odd about his appearance, he looked different somehow, but how?

 He inspected his face. There were little cuts on his neck that he didn’t remember getting and his hair looked uneven. Was it cut? He felt the back of his head and scrunched his hair up, it felt strange.

_Heart of The Whale_

The phrase ran through his mind for some reason, suddenly popping in unprompted. He shook his head and grabbed a small towel to dry his face off with, he took one last look at himself before leaving the bathroom, he felt incredibly uneasy and couldn’t put a finger on why.

But nevertheless he broke his focus and went back down the hall to his bedroom, shutting the door gently, he crossed over to sit down on his bed, staring at the wind blowing the curtains every which way.

After a while he fell back lazily onto his bed, his eyes meeting the ceiling and the only sound was the sound of the evening birds having some sort of conversation.

There was a soft knock on the door and a woman’s voice on the other end “Young master?” it was the voice of Anya, she must have been dismissed from the staff meeting with Lord Milquetoast already.

“Yes?”

“May I come in?”

“Sure” He said, hesitating for a moment before correcting himself, “I mean, yes, you may”

His father was always quite disappointed in the way he spoke sometimes, more casual than he would like his son and heir to be. “Percy” He had said many times, “You must speak much more formally than that if you wish for anyone to take you seriously”

“What if I don’t want people to take me seriously?” He had asked.

Anya opened the door and carefully crossed into the room with a tray laden with sweet biscuits and a tall cup of chilled tea. “I thought you might like a snack” She set it down on the table by the window and made her way back to the door.

“Anya”

She turned around to face him “Yes?”

“Do you know how long my father is to have guests?”

“He did not say, young Sir, though I do believe he’s headed this way, if you would like to ask him yourself” She said, stepping out of the way as Lord Milquetoast entered the room, he took one look around it and let out a sigh.

“Anya, you are dismissed” He said to the woman, who simply rushed off down the hall so as to avoid another moment around the man.

“Percival, have I not told you many times to hold yourself better than this?”

Percy sat up in bed and took a deep breath through his nose, then loudly exhaling through his mouth before speaking “Father, I have no idea what you’re talking about”

“Your room, child, it is a disgrace.”

Percy looked around, there were a couple of things on tables and books stacked against the shelves but other than that, he thought it was a finely put together room for a young lad.

“Have you come in here to mock my life choices some more or do you actually have a purpose here?”

“Percival” his father said sternly

“Sorry.” He said “It’s just that ever since I woke up this morning, I have felt very odd.. I feel as though I am forgetting things, losing bits of memory and Damien kicked me this morning like he didn’t even recognize me.”

He touched the back of his head again “And I’ve got cuts all over my neck and my hair seems to have been cut or something”

His father sighed “Percy, you are not a child. When will you stop letting your imagination run wild?”

There was a silence broken only by the flapping of the wind against the curtains, blowing them hard into the room and then sucking them back out.  Percy spoke again after a moment.

“Do you even like me?”

He could tell his father was quite taken aback by the question, but Percy didn’t care, he crossed his arms “Because I don’t think you do”

“Don’t be silly, child. I am your father”

“Yes, but I can scarcely get a word in with you, you look at me but don’t seem to see me, I speak and you only nod.  I tire of it”

“Well, I tire of having a son who is this disrespectful to his father.” He sat on the bed next to his son

“You are my son, Percival. Of course I care for you”

Percy looked down at his feet hanging off the bed, making a point to avoid looking in the direction of his father.

“What are you doing in here?” he asked quietly

“I request your company downstairs in the drawing room with the other guests, I feel it may do you some good to be around other high status members”

“Father, I have no want of that. I do not wish to be around those people”

“Percival, this is not a disagreement I wish to have with you again, you will come downstairs with me, and you will enjoy our company”

Percy turned to his father “Are you serious?”

“Have I ever been known to partake in jokes?”

“Well, since you asked. I believe your whole life as been a joke” He said, rubbing at his temples and glaring at the space his father was taking up, “Leave” He said

“Percival Milquetoast” His father said “You do _not_ speak to me that way”

Percy looked up at his father and gave him a rude hand gesture before crossing over to his desk and grabbing a biscuit off the tray, chucking it as hard as he could at his father, it fell short of hitting him and Percy simply shrugged.

“You are behaving like an insolent little child” Lord Milquetoast rose from the bed, for a split second he could have sworn that his father hesitated, almost as if he were afraid of his son.

“Don’t you have company to attend to? How ever will anyone know how rich you are if you don’t rub it in their snooty faces?” 

His father did not respond, he simply left the room, gently shutting the door behind him.  This was the nonsense that Percy hated, his father barely even reacted to him, he never yelled at him, he never showed any concern for him, he treated his own son like a stranger that he bumped into at a fancy get-together.

Percy sat down on the bed, crossing his arms for a nearly twenty minutes before standing up, crossing angrily over the door and making his way downstairs to his father, who was currently in the drawing room waiting to receive his guests who were, it would seem, running late.

“Father”

“Not now, Percival” He put his hand up to dismiss his son.

“Father!” He shouted, this made his father look at him from the chair he was sitting in

“Manners, Percival”

“I simply wish to say I’m sorry for being so rude to you upstairs, I was acting very childish”

“You were acting a little more than childish, Percy. You know that I only do what is best for you, correct?”

“Yes”

“Then I will allow you to be down here with the guests, they should be here any moment now”

“Yes, Father” He turned to sit down on the opposite chair and his father cleared his throat

“Be good, Percival”

“I’ll be good, Father”

* * *


	3. Who are you, Really?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guild makes a new friend, or prisoner, and the aristocrat is starting to question his life.

 

“He looks just like Corazón” Prudence said, peering at the impostor who was currently tied to the deck of the ship and listlessly struggling against the ropes and sweating slightly in the late afternoon sun.

Merilwen was reading from one of her various magic books after nearly thirty minutes of trying to get information out of the man “According to this… the spell isn’t supposed to last very long”

“But” the impostor said “I’ve been like this for days now”

“Do you know who cast it?”

“Some warlock, wizard or cleric or someone.. I don’t know, okay?!”

“Did Lord Milquetoast speak to you himself?”

“Yes, obviously. He gave me a set of instructions to pretend to be his son, I was told that I needed to act a certain way, and dress like a pirate… and it was weird but he paid me a lot of money”

“Not enough” Dob said “I think he was secretly hoping you’d get offed by Tobias, who, by the way.. from what Egbert and Prudence tell me” he gave them a little nod “He sounds like a real jerk”

“Violent, angry, mean” Egbert said “I mean who knows what he’s done to Corazón since I left him in that shack” He frowned and looked away from the impostor “What are we going to do with this guy? I can’t even look at him”

“We’re going to try to reverse the spell, and then we’re going to find out where the real Corazón is” Merilwen said turning to Prudence “Have you ever seen this spell done before?”

Prudence thought for a moment “I have, but I’ve never done it so I have no idea how to even begin reversing it.” She turned to walk back towards the cabins “I’m going to do some reading in my books and I’ll get back to you guys”

Merilwen nodded and turned back to the fake Corazón, “What’s your name?”

“Why?”

“Because we need to know what to call you if we’re going to have you stick around for a while”

“Fine, I’m James”

“Thank you, James” Merilwen said politely “Now I don’t have any ill will towards you, but you do need to apologize for shoulder barging me into that table”

“Sorry” He said, looking down “To be fair, I did get paid a _lot_ of money”

She shook her head “God, you sound like Corazón with the money lust you seem to have”

He scoffed bitterly “Of course I have money lust, I’m poor. I live on the streets! When the richest man in town comes up to you and asks you to do something for money Would you turn him down?”

“Well, seeing as we know Lord Milquetoast and we know he’s a terrible person, _yes_.”

“How the hell do you even know his son?” James asked

“We all met in a tavern” Egbert said “No wait, I met them in a tavern, how did you guys meet again?”

“The miracle elixirs in Casterfalls” Dob reminded him “Arlo Mayweather wanted us to find his rat son, but he wasn’t a rat the entire time he was the guy’s son”

Merilwen groaned “This isn’t helping us, we need to find someone to turn him back, and I think the only person who can do that is whoever cast the spell to begin with”

“Why do we even care?” Egbert asked, picking up something shiny that had fallen between two barrels, it looked like a coin of some sort.

“Because if we leave him like this, Tobias will kill him”

‘Shouldn’t we be more focused finding our friend?“

“We know where Corazón is, he’s probably hold up in the manor. Katie said he disappeared when she wasn’t looking, Prudence overheard his father saying he was going to kidnap him, I mean, we need to go to the manor, but first, we’re going to help James”

“We could just keep him tied up here so he doesn’t leave and get killed by Tobias”

“Hold on” James said “Are you talking about Katie Delacor?”

Merilwen turned her attention back to the tied up impostor “Yes”

“She’s… she’s got a plan, I heard her talking about it when I was stealing food from The Hungry Eel tavern, she was talking about Corazón”

“What did she say?”

“That she was going to get revenge for what happened during the solstice”

Dob’s eyes widened and he gulped “But I was the one who shoved that pearl on her head!”

“Maybe because Corazón introduced himself first she blames him for everything? I mean he did cheat her out of a lot of money, but we all did that”

James let out a laugh “If you’re involved with what happened to her, she’s absolutely pissed about it, she’s got this insane plan and I don’t even know the half of it, but what I heard is that she wanted to capture him and send him off somewhere”

“What are you saying? That Katie could have kidnapped him before Lord Milquetoast and is lying about it?”

“She is a thief” James said matter-of-factly “And, she seemed quite proud of her plan. I think you should confront her”

“And why would you care?” Dob asked “I mean, you’re being paid to pretend to be Cora”

James snickered loudly “Cora?” his snicker turned into a howl of laughter “He sounds like a little kid!”

Egbert flicked him in the ear, which seemed to shut him up. “I think he makes a good point, and it’s not like he can go anywhere, but just in case… someone should stay here while someone else goes to confront Katie, and possibly find whoever cast the spell.”

“I’ll stay here” Dob said, pushing a barrel over closer to James so he could keep watch on him

“Then I, Egbert and Prudence will go out to find Katie and the spellcaster”

“Sounds like a plan, but you might want to tell Prudence, I think she’s still in her cabin reading books”

“Oy, Prudence” Dob shouted “You and the others are going out to menace some people”

“Can I use eldritch blast?” She shouted back

“I’m looking at Merilwen and she’s shaking her head, so I guess not”

Prudence came out of the cabin looking huffy and crossing her arms “Where is it we’re going?”

She walked over to the rest of the group and gave James a look “And is it wise to leave him alone?”

“We’re not” Merilwen said “We’re going to have Dob stay here and you, me and Egbert are going to out and see if we can find any information from our old friend Katie about where Cora may be”

“So we should head out to the town then?” Merilwen said, looking at her friends “Are you going to be okay here Dob?”

“Yeah, I’ll just practice my lute-ing”

“We’ll be back as soon as possible” Merilwen said as the three of them descended off the ship and into the mostly abandoned port, heading back through the town.

 

* * *

 

The help was bustling around the sitting room offering drinks to the guests, various friends of the Milquetoast family. Percy had seen them many times at events and when he was allowed to sit with them in the home.

 

“Percival” His father said “Don’t be rude, you haven’t said a word to our guests”

“Sorry, Father” He turned to the guests, a man named Edward whom he knew was a Count of something, a woman with dark brown hair and a bored expression, and several other people he neither knew the names of, or cared to find out.

“Hello” He said politely

“Hello darling” The blonde woman said with a fake smile “Such a wonderful day, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t know, I’m not allowed to leave the manor”

She chuckled as if he had said something funny “Very droll”, she turned back to his father “Your son is quite the young man, I suspect the incidents of the past are behind you?”

He cleared his throat, Percy looked at his father “What incidents?”

“Oh, simply your attitude problems over the last couple of years.” He took a sip of wine and set his glass down “Before we start on the apetizers, would anyone be interested in seeing my fabulous art collection? I’ve a few new pieces to show off that nobody has seen yet”

Several of them nodded and murmured in excitement, or what Percy assumed passed for excitement in high society. “Percival, why don’t you stay here and have a chat with Count Edward”

“Of course, Father” he said, it was much easier to be agreeable than to start a fight with his father in front of company, he watched as the man and the others left the room, and he was alone with Count Edward.

“Percy” Edward said

“I don’t really want to talk”

“Now now, Percy, that’s no way to talk to a friend”

_Don’t worry, I’m a friend_

“What?” Percy asked “Did you just say something else?”

Edward made a face “No, of course not. What has gotten into you my dear boy?”

“I truly do not know, I woke up this morning and ever since then I’ve felt a bit unwell”

“What do you mean?” The man asked, casually taking a sip of wine while the cloud cover from that morning started to return, Percy could swear he heard something behind him but he didn’t look.  Maybe it was one of the help walking around.

“I think I’m going mad, I’ve felt like I’m being watched and I can’t remember something important, and my horse, the horse I tend to every single  day and night kicked me like he didn’t even recognize me”

Edward shook his head and tutted “You may just be overtired, that happened to my dear Samantha when she was overtired”

“Did she hear voices too?”

“Voices?”

“When you were talking, I heard something else… somebody saying ‘Don’t worry, I’m a friend’” but it sounded like you.“

“You must get some rest” He said calmly, but Percy could swear he saw the man shift uncomfortably in his seat, like he was guilty of something.

“You’re probably right” Percy said “Tell Father that I went to have a lie down.”

“Of course, my dear boy” He said, a subtle smirk flashing across his face for a split second, Percy couldn’t explain why because he had met this man several times before and never did he feel quite as uneasy as he did in that moment.

                                                                     *

**Several Years Ago:**

He entered what looked like a run down building on the outside, but had quite a few patrons cheering and shouting drunkenly, he looked around for a bit before he saw several men sitting at a long table, he approached them nervously and put several coin bags on the table “I have a lot of money, and I need your help”

A burly bearded man with a left over bunch of bubbles from ale stuck in his mustache spoke first “Who the hell are you to come here and interrupt a pirate’s day?”

“I’m a very rich man” He whispered “And I’d like you to keep it quite quiet. I need a crew”

“For what?” a blonde man piped up from the other side of the table

“Well, it’s nice to meet ya. I’m Curly Joe and this here’s my little gang I have”

“You’re pirates, right?”

“Of course we’re pirates!” He said, everyone howled with laughter “Do you fancy yourself a pirate?”

“I need to get out of Abelforth, _today_ ” Percy said, Curly Joe motioned for him to sit down in an unoccupied chair and looked at the full bags of coins

“Running away from home, are ya? Well, I do think it’s quite funny that a young rich boy like yourself assumes he would fare well on the sea”

“My background has no bearing on whether or not I’d be good on the sea. And that brings me to my next point, I want to be captain”

This elicited a roar of laughter from the pirates and their drinks sloshed dangerously all over the table as they pounded their fists in glee “Captain?” Another pirate said. “Bloody hell mate, you drive a hard bargain”

Percy reached down and grabbed another very overstuffed coin bag and tossed it on the table, which shut them up “I have more where that came from, and I’ll pay you anything to help me”

“Anything?”

“Yes, anything. But you have to agree to help me first”

Curly Joe cleared his throat “Alright, hold on for a minute , I need to confer with my crew” He said, he spent about five minutes whispering to the others until they finally broke apart and Curly Joe turned back towards him.

“You have yourself a deal”

“I already have a ship, I stole it”

Percy couldn’t tell if he was simply imagining this or not, but he thought the pirate looked quite impressed with that.

“What do we call you, Captain?”

“My name is Corazón de Leon, and I’d like to get out of here quite quickly, if you don’t mind”

“Fair enough Corazón, we’ll head out right away”

 

* * *

 

“These paintings are just marvelous” Arabella Blackwood said as Lord Milquetoast showed her and the small group of people around the room where he stored his new paintings

“This one especially” Duncan, her husband said, looking at a particularly fine piece of art that the Lord had spent quite a penny on.

Arabella turned to Lord Milquetoast and frowned “How are things with you and your son?”

“I would rather not speak of it”

“It must be a little difficult to deal with, he’s been gone for some time now.”

“Nearly five years” the Lord said with a nod “We simply pretend it never happened, but I still feel this deep sense of hatred in him for me”

“Perhaps just remind him that what you do, you do for his best interests. I mean heaven knows he doesn’t have a proper leg to stand on, not on his own. Why he ever ran away in the first place, I have no idea”

Duncan scoffed “If I had a brat kid like that who just up and left one night, I’d never let them come home.”

Arabella tutted at her husband as the group walked through the next room, walls lined with more paintings “This is why we don’t have children. Despite how vile that sounds, I don’t think it’s worth it”

They were right, of course Lord Milquetoast knew this, having Percy exist in his world and know that his son believes him a failure, it was enough to make him wish away the boy’s existence entirely.  Even his second attempt at trying to build a perfect life for his son was falling apart quicker than he could put it together.

 _If he finds out about this spell, he will never forgive me_.

He knew this, he knew that he had crossed a line but he also knew that this was the only way he was ever going to make Percival see that _this_ was the perfect life for him, that he _belonged_ in high society.

If Lord Milquetoast knew this, why couldn’t the boy understand?

The group had turned a corner into a different part of the house, and he was only alone for a mere moment before Count Edward walked casually up behind him. “Lord, we have a problem” he said in a hushed tone.

“Can it not wait?”

“Your son, he’s remembering things. He remembers the night I kidnapped him.”

“Keep your damn voice down!”

“This is going to end badly if we don’t do something about it”

“I will do something about it, He is my son. I will explain it away and everything will be as planned, now please.. Go about your own business, I am quite busy.  And don’t you dare speak of this in the manor again, Percival is a thief and a brigand, who knows if the boy will spy or eavesdrop on us”

“But, Lord…”

“You are dismissed Edward” He said, Edward disappeared right before Arabella popped back around the corner “Are you coming, Lord?”

“Yes, sorry. I suppose that conversation about Percival put me out of sorts”

 

 

* * *

Dob yawned, he was starting to lament his decision to stay on the ship as it had been hours of the same thing, watching someone who wasn’t able to move, and had no possible way to break the binds holding him.James looked at him

 

“Tired?”

“I mean, yeah… I haven’t slept in days. We arrived here in Abelforth, we lost track of Corazón and the others and then got lost in the forest with his jerk father, and Merilwen got attacked by a wolf but it should have been Mr. Milquetoast”

James nodded “I mean, you could take a nap or something. I’m not going anywhere”

Dob squinted at him “That’s exactly what Corazón would say and do if he were trying to break free of his ropes and bail off the ship”

“Uh, when this is all over, can I meet him? He sounds like a really cool guy”

Dob smiled “He is!” his smile quickly turned to a frown “But he also has a temper and yells at me when I dump all our money into the sea”

There was a breeze coming in from the north, Dob welcomed it as it brought a touch of cooler air to the overwhelmingly hot village. He heard the birds singing their final songs as the late afternoon turned slowly but surely to evening.

“Would you like to hear a song, Not Corazón?”

“Sure, but I’d also like you to stop calling me that, my name is James”

“Okay Jamesazón” Dob said, pulling out his lute and strumming away a melody that carried out onto the wind.

 

* * *

 

Percy awoke to the sound of someone knocking on his door, the details of his dream already slipping away from his mind. He groggily sat up in bed, the afternoon sun had become completely obscured by evening clouds, though it was still quite bright in the room.

“Come in” He said sleepily as the door opened and his father came into the room, shutting it gently behind him.

“Percival, there’s something we need to discuss”

“What is it?”

“You told me this morning that you’ve been feeling a bit off, there is a reason for that”

He sat up straighter in bed “And? What is it?”

“You were in an accident. You suffered minor memory loss”

“Memory loss?” He said “And you were just going to keep that from me?”

“I wanted to tell you but… I didn’t want to traumatize you, the reason for your accident was… Well it would just be for the best if those memories never returned”

“Is that why the horses are skittish around me? is that why I have all these cuts and bruises?”

Lord Milquetoast nodded “Yes, I’m afraid so… I honestly did not wish to keep it from you, but I was simply trying to protect you”

Percy looked down at his hands, various cuts and bruises marked his skin, he took a moment to think about what his father was saying, on one hand he was mad that his father simply acted as though his worries about the horses were him messing about, but on the other hand he sort of realized that telling your child that may be distressing.

“Well, I guess I can understand that, but I’m glad you did tell me. I thought I was going mad”  He said, he felt relief on top of the upset that his father has essentially lied to him, and seemingly intended to for as long as was possible.

“Because of the nature of your injuries, you do need to get more rest, I would suggest not leaving the manor grounds”

“But…” He said slowly “I wanted to head to the shops”

“Percy, you’ve suffered an injury. You need rest and relaxation to heal.” His father said sternly

“I suppose you’re right” Percy said with a nod “I won’t go out but to tend to the horses”

“I shall be in my office, do not expect me for dinner” He said curtly, leaving the room without saying another word.

So he was in some sort of accident, that explains some of the weird feelings he experienced throughout the day, the odd feelings, forgetting about some of the horses. He decided he would head down to the stables once more to see them again.

When he left his room the manor was quiet, save for the occasional staff member cleaning up a spot or dusting something.

“Staff has been instructed that the young Master isn’t to leave the manor” A balding man with heavy wrinkles whose name escaped Percy, many of the house staff seemed quite indifferent to his existence and as such, very rarely spoke directly to him.

“I’m allowed to see the horses, I’ve just spoken with father about it”

The man nodded and went about his business, Percy left the house through the front door and made his way around to the stables, he approached the last four horses, the ones he couldn’t remember.

“Hello” He said gently, one of the horses made a small neighing noise and came closer to the edge, sniffing out at Percy. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you” he said, reaching out to stroke the horses silky mane.  The horse wasn’t nervous or anything, it simply let him.

_Young Lord_

He heard these words like a whisper behind him, he whipped around on the spot but all he saw were horses, he knew that all the staff was inside the manor, he turned back to the horse

“Did you just hear that?”

The horse backed up slightly, indicating that he felt uneasy and Percy thought it odd that the horse reacted to something that he assumed had to do with his own injury, a hallucination of some sort.

But how can another living creature share the same hallucination?

 

* * *

“I think this place is haunted” Egbert said from behind Merilwen as they walked through the town square. They had just left Dob on The Joyful Damnation, and they intended to check the local taverns for any sign of Katie.

 

Merilwen was dubiously trusting James’ word on Katie’s supposed plans, but Katie was a thief, and if Merilwen knew anything about them, it was that they had no honor.

“You think Abelforth is haunted?”

“I do, I think there are ghosts here and that they’re following us”

“They better not be” Prudence said “I’ll be really irritated if we’re being haunted on top of everything else”

“What would you do?” Egbert asked

“I’d punch them”

Merilwen shushed them “Can you guys please? I need to focus, how are we going to confront Katie?”

“I can mime at her” Egbert said “I mean, it’s kind of my thing”

“I think we should eldritch blast her” Prudence added

“Okay, being the most sensible one here, I’ll talk to her” Merilwen decided “Do you think she’ll be here in this tavern?” She asked as they approached a tavern that looked similar to the one her and Dob had gone in when they were searching for directions to the manor, but with a slightly seedier vibe to it.

“The first one we happen to look in? Sure!”

Coming into the tavern from the daylight was very strange indeed as most of the lighting was provided by candles inside of skull heads, Merilwen worried that the skulls weren’t fake, but thought better than to inspect them further.  They looked around, and no sooner than they had entered, did the man behind the bar come up to them to usher them away

“No!” he said furiously “I will not have more ruffians causing trouble in my establishment”

“Excuse me?” Merilwen asked “We have no idea what you’re talking about”

“You dress like the sort I saw in here just the other day, you do.  One was a pirate, one was an orc, pirate pulls a knife on the orc and I ask them both to leave. I’m not having any more of that here.”

“Pirate?” the three of them exchanged glances “Corazón was here!”

“Where did the orc go?”

The man shrugged “No idea, but if I ever see him in here again I’ll pull a knife on him meself, that man is a danger to all business. I know em, That’s Tobias”

Merilwen nodded “We’ve heard of him as well, and he’s been causing quite some trouble for us, he’s hurt our friend, the one that was with him”

“No wonder he looked upset when he came in here” the man said

“Upset?” Egbert asked “Like angry?”

“No, before Tobias came in here he sat down in a booth looking like he was about to burst into tears, I dunno what that man’s been through, but it sure looked like something heavy”

Egbert swallowed nervously “Guys, I… I need to get some air”

Prudence and Merilwen weren’t paying attention as the dragon-born left the building, they were focused on the tavern keeper, asking him any questions they could think of to help them figure out how to rescue their friend.

“So our friend” Merilwen began “He’s in a lot of trouble…”

“If he’s crossed Tobias, I can imagine so” the tavern keeper said “But I still don’t want any trouble in my tavern.”

“No no no, of course not” Merilwen said “But… look, it’s not just Tobias that’s after him. There’s a woman-”

“Have you heard the name Katie Delacour?”

The man closed his eyes for a moment “Blonde hair to her shoulders, bad attitude? Yeah, I know her, she ran out on a tab after ordering a massive amount of alcohol, said she came in from Tanner’s Folly after the solstice”

“Well, our friend’s been kidnapped and there are two suspects, one of them is Katie”

“Is the other one the orc?”

“Well, no… I mean, we were told that Corazón just disappeared out of nowhere, grabbed when our uh, informant wasn’t looking”

‘And you’re going to assume Tobias, the last person he was seen with, has nothing to do with this?“ He raised an eyebrow ”If it ain’t Tobias you’re thinking of, whose the second suspect?“

Merilwen looked around  the nearly empty establishment and cleared her throat “Lord Milquetoast”

“Excuse me?”

“Lord. Milquetoast” Prudence repeated “Rich guy, stupid hair, ringing any bells?”

“No, I know the man. He’s the richest man in Abelforth, and I… if you’re accusing him of kidnapping, I don’t wanna get involved in this, he knows people who could put me out of business.”

“Come on, you were the last person to speak to Corazón before he disappears, your help could be really useful”

“I don’t really know anything, and anyway… Your accusations make no damn sense, why would Lord Milquetoast have your pirate friend kidnapped?”

Merilwen and Prudence looked at each other for a moment before nodding in agreement and saying in unison “It’s his son”

The tavern keeper took a deep breath and then returned to a room in the back, leaving Merilwen and Prudence to stand there with looks of confusion on their faces, the next moment they heard a loud scream from the back room and then man came back around the bar with a fake smile plastered on his face.

“You mean to tell me that Lord Milquetoast’s son, the one he says died at sea, has not only come back to Abelforth, but that he is a kidnap victim?”

Merilwen nodded

“Uh guys…” Egbert spoke from the doorway “There’s, uh… we have a-” he tried to finish his sentence when a large orc walked past him, pushing him into some chairs and tables on the way into the bar, the tavern keeper glared at him before shouting

“No!”

“I just want you to know I heard your conversation, you really think a nasty aristocrat would ever tell the truth?” He chuckled “You’re all idiots”

Prudence stuck her hand out angrily and charged electric dark energy flew out towards the orc, sending him directly into the opposite wall “You!” She screamed, the ground started shaking beneath their feet and the window shutters all slammed shut.

“Prudence!” Merilwen shouted “Stop it!”

“He almost killed me!” She took a step forward but the wood elf put a hand out

“I know, I understand that but he saw Corazón too”

“I don’t see why we’re even talking to these idiots!” She said “We know Corazón was kidnapped and it’s either this son of a bitch, or the other son of a bitch”

“We don’t know for certain if we can trust what Katie said about what happened, she’s a thief, she could have been lying to us, maybe Corazón’s just gone off. We have no idea! We need information.”

Egbert pushed the broken chairs off of him and stood near Merilwen “Prudence, I know… I know you’re angry, but we have to keep him alive, for now”

The ground stopped shaking, the windows opened again and she crossed her arms in anger as the tavern keeper shook his head

“What nonsense are you getting me mixed up in?”

“Well, an aristocrat may have kidnapped his son, or a thief did, or this idiot did and he’ll lie about it” Egbert said, indicating Tobias, who was still smoking from the eldritch powers he was struck with. He pushed himself up and shook his head “I have nothing to do with Percy’s disappearance, I met him here in this tavern, he told me off and threatened me, we went out separate ways”

“And you expect us to believe that?”

“What reason would I have to lie?”

“Because you’ve been lying this whole time!” Egbert said “You lied to us at the tavern, you lied to us at your cabin, you tried to KILL me and Prudence”

“I tried to kill Percy too, and you don’t see him whining about it” He let out a laugh “Although, He lost it when I killed his little friend”

Egbert, Prudence and Merilwen exchanged looks “Friend?”

“Some idiot who had a shop around here, he was an old friend of mine, and apparently, used to provide fine drapery for the Milquetoast Manor, doesn’t matter who he was though” He laughed again

“And the funniest part? Percy’s responsible for it! If it wasn’t for his impulsive actions, that man would… well, lets be honest, I’d have still killed him, but this is so much better”

Egbert took a small step forward, Merilwen saw him clenching his fists and wondered if she had ever seen him that angry before, the atmosphere of the room had changed fast, and he uttered one word.

“ _Flee”_

Inexplicably, Tobias started backing up out of the tavern, and then turning around to bolt out of the door, the silence in the tavern let them hear his footfalls disappearing into the distance.

“I don’t think Tobias has anything to do with Corazón” He said, turning back to the others “I think he’s telling the truth”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m a Paladin, I can sense the truth in his words, we can deal with him later. Right now, we should go find Katie”

“Yeah, and maybe we can get her to give us Corazón’s jewelry back. I mean, he’s going to be really pissed if we let it get stolen” Prudence said, Merilwen and Egbert nodded in agreement and then turned to the tavern keeper.

“You want to help us or not?” Egbert asked

Merilwen could sense something was different about him in the way he spoke, his mood had shifted considerably, he was normally chipper and upbeat, but now…

“I… I don’t want to get involved, but if you find that Delacour, tell her to pay her damn tab”

                                                                             *

 

“We’ve been looking for ages” Merilwen sighed as they passed by the same shops they had already passed before “We’ve been in all the taverns, we’ve checked all the shops and…”

“Guys” Egbert said “What if Katie already left?”

“Then she could be anywhere, and we’ll never find her if we stay here in Abelforth”

“But…” Egbert said “We can’t leave, surely? Not without-”

They passed by the fountain in the town square and the benches they had been sleeping on that morning, there was a chill coming on in the air and Merilwen stopped. “We need to go back to the tavern, lets regroup there. We need to figure a plan”

“Fine” Prudence said “But I’m still mad you wouldn’t let me kill that orc”

“Look, I hate him too for what he’s done to our friend, but it won’t help us find Katie, or Corazón, so we have to keep looking in the direction we know will help us”

“We don’t even know if James was telling the truth”

“He mentioned solstice, how would he know about that if it wasn’t something he overheard from Katie herself?”

Prudence shrugged as the three of them arrived in front of the tavern once more, they went inside and took shelter in a booth by the end of the building, the tavern keeper gave them a glare from behind the bar and after taking another man’s order, he came over to them.

“Whaddya doing back here?” He groaned “I said I didn’t want you involving me in your-”

“We can’t find Katie, we’ve looked everywhere and it’s starting to get dark, we came here to regroup”

The man sighed “Fine, you can have a chat here, just… don’t cause any trouble and be out of here by midnight”

 

* * *

 

The Lord could hear noises from outside his office, he could hear the bustling of the house staff, the cooks downstairs making dinner, and presumably his son sitting there, alone.

He considered what Edward had told him earlier, if the man was correct… Percy would regain his memories sooner rather than later, the fool who had performed the spell had refused to go any deeper than that, but the Lord should have approached it from a different angle.

It’s not about forgetting, it’s about rethinking the situation.

He didn’t want to do it, but if it came to it, he would…

He closed his eyes and quickly opened them again when the sound of a thud against the door broke his focus.

“Hello?”

There was no answer, he cleared his throat “If there is someone there, please announce yourself”

_BAD MAN_

The sound came from behind him and in front of him all at once, a loud and angry voice that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.  He shook himself and tried to focus on the papers in front of him, there was another loud bang on the door. It sounded unlike any knocking he had ever heard.

He pushed his chair away from the desk to approach and investigate the door and hallway, carefully opening it, he looked both ways down the hall and there was nothing there. He shut it again.

When he turned around all the books on the shelves started throwing themselves onto the floor with such force that it was bending the spines of some books, the window burst open and in all of the chaos, Lord Milquetoast did not notice that the only books not flying off the shelves were the ones belonging to his son.

 

 


	4. All The Lies We Are Told

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The truth comes out as Lord Milquetoast struggles to regain control of the situation, and the guild is hot on the trail of something, but will they find their friend?

“Is father coming down from his study?” Percy asked the woman as she set the food on the table. unprompted, she gave him a sigh

 

“You could simply ask him yourself”

“I’m sitting down”  He said, indicating the chair and table, which elicited an eye roll from her.

“What kind of a spoiled brat are you?” She groaned “I’m not here to parley between you and your father”

“Excuse me?”

“I have had just about enough of you and your pretentious attitude, I have known you for _years_ and I tire of the ungratefulness in your words, actions and your stupid smug expressions”

As she was speaking, several other members of the house staff had entered the room, some of the cooks, some of the maids, and even a butler, were all standing around the grand dining room and watching as the woman berated him.

He put his hand up “Excuse me, can I just… say one thing?”

The woman stopped talking “You do realize that I can fire you, right?” He said with a shrug “I mean, I’m pretty sure you’re not rich, you’re probably lower middle class, right? So you’d like to keep your job?”

Her pupils widened and she took a step back from the table, nodding slowly

“I’m not generally speaking, an asshole” He said “I’m fair, I’m nice, I’m also in no way like my father, but you… You treat me like I’m the same kind of deplorable man as he is, and you know, that upsets me”

“Of course” She said, her voice shaking slightly

“You are dismissed, and I’ll keep this between us, and… well, them. But they won’t tell anyone” He gave the other staff a look “Will you?”

They all shook their heads and dispersed from the dining room, leaving him alone with his food, he shook his head and tutted.

He wasn’t angry at the woman for flipping off her lid at him, he was just a little upset that she yelled at him the same way she would have yelled at his father. Percy didn’t look down on the staff the way his father did, he also didn’t greatly abuse his power in the town.

He took a bite of food and as he was chewing and thought about it for a minute.

He wasn’t bad at yelling at people and threatening to fire them, that was kind of fun, maybe if that’s all their was to being the heir of the Milquetoast fortune he could handle it, but even then, he knew he was being dishonest to who he was. He could come off as a petulant child, but he knew his heart wasn’t in it.

Who was he?

A failed child in the eyes of his father, it’s almost as though the man wanted to raise him to be a stuffy rich kid who cared for very little except status, but Percy couldn’t give a hell about status, sometimes he just wanted to run away.

_Run away_

_I have to get out of Abelforth, today_

There it was again, flashes of something, were they memories or were they formed from the damage to his head?

He had a strong feeling of deja vu, he was here before in this very dinning room, he was here.. He shook the feeling off and took another bite of food, leaning over to grab the wine bottle.

He uncorked it and looked carefully around the room, there was nobody there of the house staff, and his father was still in his office, so instead of pouring it into a glass as was proper, he put the bottle to his mouth and drank directly from it, and then he slammed it down unceremoniously onto the table.

Again, he felt the uncomfortable feeling that he had done this before, but he reassured himself it was simply the effects of the injury to his head.

Should he really be drinking with a head injury?

He lifted the bottle back up to his mouth and shrugged, better goof off while he was alone, because when his father was around he was expected to be serious and boring.

This is what it was, Percy may have been good at playing the part, but he never wanted to, he didn’t want to lord his status over others, he didn’t want to treat the house staff like they weren’t living beings, but he was expected to.

Even by them.. he knew the staff thought him weird for not acting as haughty as his father.

Was he pretentious? of course, it comes with the territory, it’s how he grew up, it’s mostly all of what he learned in his life, how to be proper, how to speak, how to walk among others, how to project an image of yourself you wish others to see, he learned all of the rules of high society.

Which is why he hated it, this wasn’t the life he wanted, he wanted to yell at pirates on a ship, he wanted to dive deep into the water for treasure, he wanted to hoist the sails and set out for adventure…

But here he was instead, sitting in an empty dining room by himself with his feet up on the table, guzzling down expensive wine mostly to infuriate his father.

He finished up his food and left the table for his bedroom, shutting the door and opening the window to let in some of the night air as he fell into a fitful sleep full of vague dreams he wouldn’t remember in the morning.

His first dream was a surreal dream involving the house staff chasing him through the manor, except he was a small rat and couldn’t find any food, simply passing by giant containers of rat poison and mouse traps.  in the next dream he was sleeping in a dark crypt while the glow of twenty or more eyes stared at him.

He woke up from his fitful sleep in mid-morning, the sound of the birds chirping away, and a light knock on his door. It was the butler.

“What is it?”

“The Lord requests your company down in the drawing room”

“Tell the ‘Lord’ to come up here and talk to me himself”

“I shall do that, my good sir” the man said, and Percy heard him walking away from the door and down the stairs.  He waited for several moments before the door opened and his father entered the room.

“Percival, you do realize I am quite a busy man and I do not have time to.. to”

“To speak to your son?” Percy said in a challenging tone.

His father let out an exasperated sigh “I wish for you to know that I am throwing a party”

“A party?”

“Yes, and you will be there”

“But I don’t want to be at a party” He said “I want to stay up here in my room, or go to the stables and hang out with the horses”

“Percy, you will be at the party. I am throwing it in honor of our good friend’s return from his charity mission and it will be a fine get together”

“Whose going to be there?”

“Well, the news is going out among the village, I assume that anyone who wishes to have a standing in this town will arrive, but be wary, because I know there will be poor people coming here as well.”

“I’ll get my poking stick ready” Percy said sarcastically, he got off the bed and ushered his father out of the room “Now now, leave. I must make myself presentable for the party”

“Percival” His father said sternly

“Sorry” Percy said, but he assumed his father could still hear the hint of sarcasm in his voice as he shut the door.

 

* * *

The sunlight burned the back of Dob’s head as he opened his eyes, he had fallen asleep the previous evening and must have been out like a light the entire time, his head propped up against the barrel.

He looked in front of him, James was still tightly tied up with the ropes and appeared to be asleep as well. Dob shook the sleep off of him and yawned loud enough to wake up the man.

“Ugh, what?”

“Wake up, you’re a prisoner, they don’t sleep”

“You know, even the worst captors offer their victims some food”

Dob looked offended and stood up, looking around the ship “Did… you, did anyone come back last night?”

James shook his head

“And also” Dob added “You’re not exactly our prisoner, we’re protecting you”

“I feel so safe” He replied sarcastically “At least, untie me”

“Are you sure you won’t try to escape?” Dob asked

“I’m pretty sure I’m not going to try to escape to the streets of a town in which resides a man who wishes to kill someone who looks like me”

“That was a mouthful” Dob said with an impressed clapping, he leaned over and pulled out a knife from his belt, which happened to belong to the real Corazón, Dob had nicked it off him when he wasn’t looking the last time he saw him.

It felt like ages since he saw his friend, he was worried about what had happened to Corazón since they all got separated, he was worried what that nasty man Tobias must have done to him.

Dob takes a moment, as if a thought had come to him suddenly “Hey, why are the others out looking for Katie as a possible suspect when Mr. Milquetoast paid you off to look like Corazón?”

“Because I don’t know if he went through with the plan, he could have changed his mind, or… Katie could have gotten to him before the Count”

“The count?”

“Count Edward, he’s an asshole aristocrat. He had a party the other day that I was trying to get into but, I’m poor. So they smelled the streets on me and I had to hang out by the back”

“What does he have to do with Corazón?” Dob asked, starting to cut the various ropes binding the man.

“I mean Edward was there when the Lord was briefing me on what to do, but again… they hadn’t kidnapped him yet, he wasn’t with them. They talked about it like it was still something they needed to do”

Dob thought on this for a second “So there is a chance that Corazón was ambushed by Katie and some other thugs instead?”

“Yes, like I’ve been trying to tell you” He rubbed at his wrists as Dob straightened up “Thank you, I didn’t think you’d actually cut the ropes”

“Well, I know being tied up must suck, and I don’t want to seem like the bad guy here, so… Maybe just roam the ship, I’ll be out here”

James shook his head “Maybe we can find your friends?”

“Oh! yes!” Dob shouted excitedly “That one sounds good, we could ALL be looking for Katie”

“And possibly food?”

“What is your obsession with food?”

“I haven’t eaten in three days” He said, blowing his hair out of his face “God, this guy..” He indicated his face “Does he not like, cut his hair?”

“No, he’s a pirate. I think he actually took a potion to make it longer because when I first met him, it was not that long, and then suddenly it was.  Also” He leaned in “I think he has rub on tattoos”

James laughed and pushed himself up off the deck of the ship, stretching out his legs and arms “Lets go paint the town red, Dob”

 

 

* * *

“I have some rather unwelcome news, it appears we will have to postpone the party” Percy overheard his father as he came down the stairs into the main hall.

 

“What’s going on?”

“Eloise Henningway and her husband were in an accident, she survived but her husband did not..” He said

“Oh, that’s… rather unfortunate”

“I’ve sent word that the party is postponed until after the funeral, which will be evening tomorrow.” He took a pause as one of the house staff came up with a note, which he unfolded and read “Ah, and it looks like Edward requires an audience at his estate”

“You’ve been seeing quite a lot of Edward lately” Percy said, almost accusingly “I thought you didn’t like him”

“Oh, nonsense. I get on perfectly with him”

“I seem to recall otherwise”

“Well, we all know your memory isn’t what it used to be, Percival”

“Excuse me?” Percy said “Isn’t that a bit of a harsh thing to say about your son whose been in an accident?”

The Lord took a moment’s pause and looked at his son, as if he were seeing him for the first time, there was something in his expression that Percy could not name, it almost looked like remorse, but it was gone as soon as it had come on. The man straightened up.

“I am required at the Count’s” He said, giving his son a curt nod and heading out of the manor as quickly as he could, Percy has two options, he could stay here among the staff and be bored out of his mind, or he could tail his father and see exactly what he and Count Edward were meeting about.

He had recalled that his father spoke quite badly of Edward in the past, so why were the pair of them inviting each other over to their homes? He felt odd about it, and even more so after he was left alone with Edward the previous night, the man had a strange vibe that Percy couldn’t put his finger on, it was as if his father and Edward were conspiring together, but what was it about? Some high society secret?

He had no idea where to begin thinking, but he was curious, and his curiosity pushed him to plan out a moment when he could safely leave the manor without prying eyes on him, he decided that he would cause a commotion, if the entire staff was busy, they wouldn’t see him slip out of the manor, let alone try to stop him. 

Fashioning a sling out of materials he found around the estate, he stood at the top of the grand staircase, quietly crouched behind the low wall and it’s railing and aimed the sling, and the rock it housed, at the support for the chandelier.  He felt oddly comfortable at that moment, like he had done this sort of thing before, and he was a really good shot.

The moments following were filled with the deafening crash of the chandellier against the tiled floor, and as he hoped, every single member of the house staff started coming to investigate the noise. He smiled and came down the stairs, feigning shock.

“What in the world has happened here?” He said with a gasp

“Oh no, oh no.. I have no idea” one of the maids said, the panic clear in her voice “Please young Master, do not tell the Lord about this.. He’ll fire us!”

“I don’t know that I can keep it a secret” He said “You clean all of this up, right now!” He said in his most demanding voice, if there was a good thing about growing up in the manor, it was growing up knowing how to be cruel to others, which he used to his advantage as the house staff busied themselves with the mess, and he was able to carefully sneak out the back garden door and sneak around to the stables.

“Damien” He said in a whisper “I know I freaked you out before, but do you mind giving me a lift?”

Damien let out a slight neighing noise and Percy reached out to pet him lightly “I promise, I won’t hurt you.” He said earnestly.

The horse came closer to him, so he thought this was the perfect time to open the gate on the stables and affix the proper safety items to the horse before getting on him.  When he was atop the horse, he gave him a pat “Now we’re being very stealthy, so do you think you can handle that for me?”

The horse heavily exhaled through his nose, Percy quietly and carefully indicated to the horse that he was to move at a slow pace, so that those inside the manor wouldn’t hear the noises of his hooves hitting against the ground. Luckily, since Percy was taking him around though the back exit and not through the gates, much of the ground was grass, it was a bit wet from the rain, so it was soft enough that nobody heard anything as he led the horse off the property and through the town proper.

He slowly trotted through the town square, seeing people out and about doing their morning routines, heading into work, opening their shops and trying to sell wares or simply hanging out near the fountain. He hadn’t been to Edward’s estate in many years, the last time being when he was a small child, but he still remembered where it was quite well. He pulled the horse to a stop as the hill was too steep for Damien to go up, he jumped off the horse and took him by the lead up the small hill.

“Now when we get up there, I need to park you somewhere that’s inconspicuous, if Father sees you, he’s going to know I disobeyed him and I’ll be in a lot of trouble”, Damien replied by whinnying happily. Percy smiled at the horse, he didn’t know why, but it felt like quite a long time since he had seen him, let alone been able to ride him.

It was a nice freeing feeling, but it was one he’d have to save for later, he needed to be focused, he needed to be stealthy, he made his way with the horse to the manor grounds of Count Edward, hitching Damien to an area bathed in shadows, he gave the horse another pet “I’ll be back soon, I promise”

The morning’s sun had turned to overcast as he made his way around the front of the manor, it was odd how well he remembered these grounds. He covered his face as someone came out of the front doors.

“Albert, I do find myself quite engrossed with the sordid stories, do tell me more”

Two men were having a conversation, they looked as though they could be friends of the Count’s, Percy took this chance to sneak past them and into the welcome hall, he had an odd feeling that he had been here recently.

He had a sudden flash of himself running out of this exact hall and rushing to an alley, where a blonde girl sat across from him, had he been crying?

He heard voices and quickly ducked out of the light, it was his father and Edward “I cannot believe it, the poor woman, I know her and her husband didn’t get on in later years, but for their marriage to end in such a way is… well it must be an absolute heartbreak”

“Agreed”

“Do you think it would be uncouth of me to show up at the funeral?”

“I think it would be absolutely abysmal for you to show up at the funeral of a man whose wife you slept with on more than one occasion”

Edward rolled his eyes “I should have never shared that with your wife all those years ago, thought she was trustworthy”

“Enough tittering on, let us head to your office upstairs and directly to the right”  The Lord said dismissively.

From his hiding spot, Percy made a face, his father’s habit of being oddly specific came in handy this time, he watched the two men’s silhouettes disappear into the next room and heard footfalls as they made their way up the stairs, He took this moment to come out of the shadows in the hall and walked confidently through into the next room and close to the master staircase, which was a grand display of snobbery, if he did say so himself.  Though it were smaller than the staircase in the Milquetoast manor, it still gave off an air of “I am a very rich man”, and was presumably a compensation for Edward’s title being ‘Count’ instead of ‘Lord“, a fact that Percy’s father constantly reminded the man.

Percy waited until the two of them were on the landing upstairs before he began climbing, due to the time of day it was, there weren’t many visitors to the Count’s home, the man was well known for being “hospitable” or what he thought that meant, meaning people could come in and out of his home and converse, look at his paintings, and be cruel to the house staff.  Edward scarcely had to show himself to these people, and it went without saying that the poor people were strictly _not_ allowed inside his home.

But he did make a big show of pretending to accept them.

Percy tailed the men to a room near the end of one of many grand hallways, and hid around a corner until they went in, luckily the door didn’t shut as they entered and he crouched outside the office listening in.

“So what is it that you wanted to see me for?” Lord Milquetoast asked, the impatience obvious in his voice. As if he thought there were many more important things to be doing.

“Just wanted to know how Percy was doing”

“Percy is fine, now. I’ve had a discussion with him”

“Are you sure? Because he was remembering things when I spoke with him”

“I’ve told him a lie about being injured, it will explain away the memory problems”

Edward scoffed “Do you really think that your lie will stop the memories coming back? The man you hired didn’t do his job properly, if I were you, I’d ask him back to do it again”

“He flat out refused to go any deeper than that when I asked him the first time, and I will ask you to mind your tone when speaking of _my_ son”

“He’s going to remember, and who do you think will pay the price for that?”

“I’m his father, he wouldn’t dare, now if you don’t mind, I am heading back to my estate to prepare for the funeral tomorrow. I will have no more word on his”

Percy’s eyes widened and he quickly moved out of the way of the door, bolting down the stairs and back onto the grounds, he snuck around to where he hitched Damien “Look” he said breathlessly “I know I told you to be stealthy, but we’re going to have to get the hell out of here _now”_ He mounted the horse and lead him out of Edward’s estate, on the way back through the square he was going so fast he nearly crashed into two people who were merely enjoying their day out.

“Sorry!” he shouted as he passed them by, he rode up through the main gate and back around to the stables, Damien gently settling back into his spot in the stables as Percy locked the gate. He fell to the ground and struggled to catch his breath.

So his father was lying to him about his injury, and Count Edward was in on it? He had no idea what the two men had been talking about but all he knew was that his father lied to him, even after treating him like his memory loss and confusion was simply a result of him going mad.

He sat there against the wall for a long time, staring at the space between the two horses on the other side.  After what could have been an hour, he heard someone come into the stables.

“Percy?”

He kept staring at anything but his father, he wanted to be angry, he depserately wanted to yell or scream, but all he could do was sit there.

“You lied to me” he said, his voice unsteady as he started to lose his composure “You told me I had an accident, but you lied to me…”

“Percival, what are you-”

“Don’t try to play stupid!” He shouted “I followed you to Edward’s estate, I spied on you”

“You did what?”

“Yes, and I know that you think it’s bad what I did, but whatever you did… what the hell were you talking about with him?”

“Percy, this has all been a misunderstanding”

“I understand one thing, I understand you lied to me and… you told Edward something about a man who refused to do a job.. What was that job Father?”

“Percy, I believe we should head into the manor right now, you need to have a lie down”

Percy closed his eyes and bit his lip in an attempt to stop himself crying, but it didn’t work and he started gently sobbing, he heard his father’s footsteps come closer and then felt the man’s hand on his shoulder.

“Percy…”

“These memory flashes…” He said through the tears “You messed with my memories, didn’t you?”

“Percy that’s-”

“Didn’t you?!” he shouted, pulling away from his father’s hand “I want the truth, _now”_

His father stood up and brushed off his sleeves “Percival, what I did, I did for your own good”

“You not only lied to me, but you… tried to erase who I am!” He stood as well, backing away from his father “I can’t believe you would do something so despicable.”

“As I said, it was for your own good”

“I remember it now, I was in an alley with.. talking to somebody, a blonde girl… Katie!, and you, I pushed you.”

“Son, I didn’t want to have to do this but you’ve given me absolutely no choice”

“Do what?” He asked, but before he could even get an answer a man’s voice whispered in his ears “Sleep well, Corazón”

And then everything clicked at once, he remembered Tobias, he remembered Bladeor, he remembered Dob, Prudence, Merilwen, Egbert, and he remembered himself.

And then his head hit the ground.

 

* * *

 

 

“Do you remember our carriage ride to Pillow’s Bluff?”

 

Merilwen nodded

“Do you remember how Corazón argued with Dob about being the one to smooth talk the guards at M. Channail's crypt?”

Again, Merilwen nodded, she had no idea where Prudence was going with this but she just let the warlock speak.

“Maybe we should have let him” She said, looking away for a moment, her, Merilwen and Egbert had woken up in the tavern they had spent the night in, the tavern owner was still fast asleep on his cot above the bar.

“Should we wake him up or?” Egbert asked, pointing upwards, the three of them had fallen asleep in the booth by the end of the tavern. Merilwen shrugged “He doesn’t want involved with it, but… we should ask around about Katie, we have no idea where she could be and if she left town then we need to find that out”

“Alright, where to start first?” Egbert asked

“We’re going to go back to the Damnation to check on Dob and James” Merilwen replied, pulling the cloak she had used as a blanket back around her shoulders and getting up out of the booth“

The other two join her by the door and they make their way back through the town square where several people were crowded around the fountain whispering among each other, Merilwen approached a group of these people.

“Excuse me” she said politely “I was just wondering, why are so many people gathered here right now?”

A younger girl with black hair down past her shoulders gave her a withering look “Because of the ruckus caused by the boy earlier”

“Boy?”

“Some idiot on a horse!” Another person piped up “Came barelling through here with no regard for safety or anything of the sort”

“She thinks it was the Milquetoast boy.”

“It looked like him”

“You’ve never _met_ him”

“But I know what he looks like, the portraits and all”

Merilwen turned to her friends who both shrugged “Milquetoast boy?”

“Are you… not from around here? Yeah, the Lord’s son, there’s a lot of rumors the past couple days that he’s come back”

“But are there rumors that he’s up at the estate?”

The girl made a face “What are you, in love with him or something? If he’s here in Abelforth, he’s at the estate.”

“I heard he wasn’t allowed to leave”

“Who did you hear that from?”

“Count Edward was blabbing it in the silk shop just yesterday”

“Oh my god, you saw the Count in the silk shop? Isn’t he just the hottest?”

“He’s too old, I like Percival’s look. I wonder if he’s looking for a Lady”

“Ugh” the other girl said “He’s too impersonable for my taste”

“And you can say that, because you _have_ met him, right?”

“Right, I met him several years ago at the museum opening”

Merilwen turned back to her friends, having exhausted all conversation with the two girls “They won’t tell me anything else”

“Do you think Cora _is_ at the manor?”

Merilwen shrugged “We have no way of going, unless you all want to split up but… I think that’s a terrible idea”

“Let’s go to the Damnation, lets find Dob and James and go search for Katie”

“I’m sorry” a voice behind them said, it was another person who was separate from the group of gossipers “You seemed awfully interested in the gossip about Percy”

“We.. we’re friends of his and he’s… gone missing”

“I’m Melody, I own a tailor shop up the way… and I saw him just the other day, I had ‘em in my shop, he was going to Count Edward’s charity ball to celebrate Lord Milquetoast’s new fancy set of chairs or whatever”

“How fancy can they be to warrant a celebration?” Egbert asked in confusion

“She’s being sarcastic” Prudence said

“Last I know, he was there at Count Edwards. If you see him, tell him he owes me some money”

“I mean” Merilwen began “He got kidnapped, twice, I don’t think he’s got money on him anymore”

“Shit, kidnapped? you said he was missing”

“Yes” Egbert said “He’s missing because he was kidnapped, first by a brute named Tobias, and then… uh we don’t know, but we’ve narrowed it down to two suspects, a blonde thief who hates us because we ruined her solstice and… uh, his father”

Melody took a couple of steps back and took a couple of moments to process what they were saying “You… I’m sorry, you think Lord Milquetoast _kidnapped his son_?” She said in a whisper, looking around to make sure nobody else heard her

“Uh” Prudence said “I mean, he _did_ hire some guys to kill his son a couple months ago when we were in Casterfalls”

“Holy shit” Melody said “I had _no_ idea, no wonder he was so defensive! Hell, I feel bad now.”

“Did he say anything to you? did he mention the name Tobias?”

She shook her head “He didn’t say a lot to me, he seemed really upset about something though, and now that I know his father did that…” She shook her head “That’s despicable.”

“That’s why we need to find our friend, we have no idea who might have taken him, Tobias, Katie or his father”

“Do you need some help?”

“We could use all the help we can get, actually” Merilwen said “And Dob’s not here, so you don’t have to get in his papoose”

“Wait, what? Does he walk around with people in a papoose?”

“Sometimes”

“That’s weird”

“It’s Dob, you’d like him”

“If there’s someone out there trying to kill your friend, I know someone we should go see. My friend runs a shop up here for cult stuff, but she sells protective items as well”

“Eurgh, her name doesn’t happen to be Ingrid does it?”

“Actually yes, do you know her?”

“Unfortunately”

 

* * *

He looked down at his son as the spellcaster paced back and forth “You’re absolutely mad” he said “I won’t do it”

 

Lord Milquetoast looked away from his unconscious son at the man “I will make _sure_ you die if you refuse to do this”

“No no no, you don’t understand, if I do this… it’s going to mess up his mind, he’s going to be-”

“I do not care!” He shouted “I want it done. Take it all, dig as deep as you have to, I want him to forget everything, and I want new memories to replace them. He is my heir, he is happy here, he is exactly who he should be”

“Against his will” the man said angrily, spitting on the ground “This is disgusting, and you” he said to Edward, who was leaning casually against the wall and smoking a cigar “How can you call yourself a charitable man if you’re doing something this horrible?”

“Oh this doesn’t even begin to cut the surface, my dear boy” He puffed a ring of smoke into the small room. It was an alcove in the Milquetoast wine cellar, just enough space for the Lord, his son, the warlock and Edward.

“This is for Percival’s own good”

The warlock rolled his eyes “I’m a warlock and I think what you’re doing is going too far, you have your own son tied up in what is essentially a dungeon”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic” the Lord said with a wave of his hand “Now do the ritual, cast the spell, make him whole again” He nodded at Edward who took out a polished looking pistol, he pointed it at the warlock “And I would start doing it sooner, rather than later”

He groaned and with hesitation approached Percy, closing his eyes to prepare the spell. Several moments of silence passed before Percy regained consciousness and screamed

The warlock lost his composure and took a step back “It’s… it’s not working, like I told you before… I can’t access the deeper parts, it’s… it’s almost as if there was a magical barrier blocking me”

“Figure it out” Edward said, coming up behind him and pressing the gun to his neck.

Percy was in some sort of trance, his eyes still closed but his body stiff, rigid, The Lord carefully approached him “Percival”

“Percival” he said again  “Do you remember…”

His words were drowned out by another deafening screech coming from the boy, he turned to the warlock “What in the world did you do?”

“I tried to break the wall, look. he obviously had some kind of interaction with a HUGE amount of magic, because it’s weak but… it’s still stronger than I’ve ever seen in someone who doesn’t have an innate talent for it”

“Warlock” Percy said softly “If you complete your spell, I will literally drive a spike through your eye”

“Now now” The Lord said to his son “No need to be vile”

“No need to be vile, he says” Percy finally opened his eyes “No need to be vile to the three mean conspiring to steal my mind” He struggled against the ropes “I will kill one of you, don’t think I won’t”

Edward laughed and moved the gun to point it directly at him instead “You think you can move faster than a bullet?”

Percy looked from Edward to his father “Are you serious?” He said “You’re.. you’re just going to stand there while this asshole threatens me with a gun?”

His father stepped out of the way “Percival, do as I say or I cannot be held responsible for what another man does”

“Warlock!” He shouted at the man “Try the spell again”

“Try it again, and I will keelhaul you. Whatever that even is!”

“Try it!” Lord Milquetoast shouted and the warlock gulped “I’m sorry” He said to Percy, “I’m so sorry…”

He tried it again, and this time it appeared to work, he focused as hard as possible. The Lord saw his son’s nose start to bleed, the blood dripping down the front of his cleanly washed clothes.

This was his child, and he was finally going to be the son he wanted.

The warlock slumped backwards, hitting his head against the hard floor, Percy opened his eyes.

“Percival?”

“Yes, Father?”

“Do you remember anything about.. half orcs and shape shifting druids?”

“I should hope not, that sounds absolutely horrid”

Lord Milquetoast smiled and looked at Edward, nodding

“Why am I on the floor?”

Edward approached him with a chuckle “Lights out, Percival” he said right before hitting him against the skull with the butt of his pistol.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Prudence, Merilwen and Egbert were not going to run into Melody, but I remembered her from the previous story and thought it would be kind of funny that they are actually just retracing Corazon's steps. 
> 
> \-------
> 
> Dob and James almost get run over by Corazon's horse in this chapter, which you'll also see from their perspective in the next chapter.


	5. I'll Be Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Actions will have consequences, and Dob thinks he saw something!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter to gear up for the longer ones coming.

Percy awoke in his bed, it was closer to the afternoon than the morning and he grunted. Pushing himself up and out of bed, he was already dressed, so he assumed that he had gone for a nap and nobody woke him.

He made his way downstairs and grabbed the arm of the first house staff he could find “Why didn’t you wake me?”

She recoiled a bit and nervously answered “I didn’t know you were taking a nap, young Lord”

He let out a slight laugh, which seemed to loosen the woman up a bit, he let go of her arm and as she started to leave the room he cleared his throat “Excuse me, maid?” He said, she turned around “I would apologize for not knowing your name but I’m not sorry, also, you’re fired”

Her eyes widened and she gasped as Percy came into the drawing room, watching as the butler, Winston, was serving his father more tea. His father was reading from an old leather bound book.

“Father, you need to be more careful who you hire on as staff, I just received the most disgusting attitude from a _maid”_

His father looked at him above the book and clicked his tongue “I heard the commotion from the hall, are you going to fire every house staff member that doesn’t behave the way you wish?”

Percy thought on this for a moment, he had grown up in this manor and seen house staff come and go, many of them fired for even more trivial reasons, he remembered when he was a child and his father fired one of the butlers for pronouncing the word “attire” wrong.

“Yes” He finally answered

“Now, I do hope you are ready for the funeral this evening”

“Do we have to go to that? I absolutely detest pretending to be sad”

“Now now, Percy, we have a duty. People will expect to see us there and if we are not there, people will talk”

“Understood, and then tomorrow evening is the party?”

“Actually, I have found a way to make it work for us, instead of celebrating the charity we had chosen, I’ve altered it to make it about the life of Mr. Hennington. It will be a somber affair, but it will celebrate the life and achievements of the man”

“Very smart, Father”

“I thought so, yes. It serves as a bit of a wind down from the funeral, as well. There will be drinks, food, places to relax, but do ready yourself, we have a very long day ahead of us. I’ve had clothes sent to your room for both occasions”

“Of course, Father” Percy said “But for now I will tend to the horses”

His father nodded and his attention shifted back to the book that he had never put down in order to speak to his son.  Percy was heading down the stairs outdoors on his way to the stables and saw impressions in the mud as if he had already taken the horse out.

He came into the stables and Damien and the other horses started to freak out, they were neighing as loud as possible, and Damien started to whine.  Percival approached him “Have you not been fed or something?”

_BAD MAN_

The voice sounded as though it was coming from all around him, as if it were carried in the breeze that circled the stables. “Well, no matter, we’re having a party here tonight and if you are this agitated, I assume father will have you put down”

He reached out and gave the horse a pat, he did not know what it was, but he knew deep down that he was forgetting something important, and the more he tried to remember, the further away it was.

“I will be heading out soon to attend to a funeral” He told the horse “I don’t much care for the man who died, his child ripped a clump of my hair out when I was thirteen”

The child in question was Barclay Henntington, he was presumably the same age as Percy was now, as they weren’t that far apart in age as children. He knew the man would likely be at his own father’s funeral, but he desperately hoped against hope that he wasn’t going to turn up at the estate.

“He was dreadful”

The word stuck in his mind for a moment, tugging at the same part of his mind that seemed to have forgotten something. He waved it off and gave the horse one more pat before heading back inside, he spotted Winston in the kitchen making a spot of tea.

“Would you care for some tea, young Master?”

“Of course, Winston” He said, the man handed him a small cup of tea from the tray, Percival took one sip and then spit it out.

“Ugh! This is disgusting.” He tossed the cup on the floor “Absolutely vile, I would rather drink whatever comes out the back end of the horses”

Winston stared at him for a moment

“Well?” Percival asked “Are you going to clean it up or what?”

Winston nodded and put the tray on the counter “Of course, young Lord” He went to fetch a broom and dustpan to sweep the broken glass into.  Percival shook his head in disgust and stepped over to the counter, dumping the contents of the kettle and shaking his head in dismay.

 

* * *

“Where do you think your friends could have gotten to?” James asked “It almost feels like we’ve been out here for ages just walking around”

Dob nodded as the pair of them passed by the same shops they had walked by at least five times now, they were hungry and tired, and Dob heard a low rumble in the distance, like thunder was on the way.

“I agree, but also I don’t know where else we can check.”

“Can we check a place that has food? I’m starving”

Dob rolled his eyes “You know, you actually sound like Corazón”

“I’ve been told” James said sarcastically “And Corazón sounds like he knows what he’s talking about if he talks of food”

“We can check out that bread place” Dob pointed across the street “Ooooh, it looks like they sell cheeses too! Corazón would be furious he’s missing out on this”

“Okay okay, lets _go_ and get food” James said impatiently “I’m starving”

No sooner than they attempted to cross the street did a horse come crashing through the square, a man with short brownish, almost black hair atop the horse as it galloped wildly through the square, nearly knocking into the both of them.

“Who the hell was that?”

Dob blinked “I don’t know, and I might be crazy.. but he looked like Corazón”

“Sorry!” the man yelled from the back of the horse as he disappeared up the pathway.

James and Dob exchanged a glance “That sounded like my voice, like you know what I mean?”

Dob nodded excitedly “Do you think that was Corazón? We have to follow him!”

James made a face “But.. food!”

“Lets just follow him a little bit and then if it’s not Corazón, we can come back and… it’ll be fine”

“Can’t we just… pop into that shop for a second?”

“Do you even care about finding finding Corazón?”

James shook his head “No!”

Dob grabbed him by the arm of his jacket and dragged him along as they ran to follow the man on the horse.

 

* * *

He looked down at his hands, his fingernails were dirty, it looked like he had been pulling dirt out of the ground.  He looked up and around him at the people who gathered for the Hennington’s funeral. They all looked like they were faking being sad, even his wife.

 

He caught the eyes of Barclay, who gave him a smile and thumbs up. Many people had agreed to give speeches at the service, his father being one of them, and before Percy knew it, his father was speaking.

Something was off about this gathering, there was a cold feeling in the warm spring air that he couldn’t figure out, and occasionally he felt as though someone was touching him but nobody was near enough to do so.  He tried to pay attention to his father.

“Death is a reminder that we take our loved ones for granted, one day they are here and the next day they are gone.” He said in his best impression of a somber voice.  Percy knew that he didn’t care for the Henningtons, but he wanted to make an impression.

“There were moments that I felt I was not the proper father to my son” He continued, Percy looked up, there was something deeply wrong now, the cold had become unbearable and it was as if time had slowed down, but everyone was unaware of it.

“Sometimes I felt I could have done better to raise the perfect son, but sometimes life gives us second chances to do what is best for our loved ones. Unfortunately, what Eloise has lost cannot be replaced, but it is admirable that she and her husband were able to mend fences before his departure”

_Second Chances_

Percy whipped around, nearly knocking into a woman sat beside him “Who said that?”

Several people shook their heads, others started to whisper to their seating partner

His father ignored the interruption and continued on with his speech “It turns out that the most powerful magic we can attain is the love we have for others”

_MAGIC_

_HE TRICKED YOU_

_HE’S LYING_

Percy closed his eyes to focus on his father’s voice and not the strange chorus of voices that seemed to be trying desperately to tell him something, to let him know that…

Something was wrong

“We will carry the memory of those who are gone in our hearts, and those memories will last forever”

_memories_

Percy stood up out of his seat and opened his eyes, all he saw was his father standing there and lying to these people, pretending he was a kind and loving man.

“Percival, is something the matter?” His father asked

Percy didn’t say a word, he simply stared at his father in disbelief and his eyes started to burn.

“Percival?”

Percy shook his head and slowly started to back away from the chairs, he turned and ran as fast as he could, this all happened before, his father was at the head of a table in a grand room and he ran, there was darkness, there were others. He ran through the grass as the rain started to come down, he wasn’t paying attention and crashed right into someone near the path to the estate.

“ _You”_ the man said in surprise “You…”

“You did this to me” Percy said, grabbing the man by the shoulders “YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!”

The warlock shook his head “No, no you have no idea.. I.. the reason you even remember anything at all, the reason you’re able to break through that, I fucked it up on purpose.   I-”

“You agreed to do the spell in the first place you son of a-”

Percy angrily punched him right in the face, his fist connecting with the man’s nose and a grunt of pain followed “Fix it, fix it right now”

“I can’t!” He said “it’s… I can’t fix it, it takes a stronger kind of magic than I have”

“Then you’re going to take me to someone who can fix it”

“Not so fast, Percival” His father’s voice said, Percy turned around as his father slowly walked through the nearly empty square, as everyone had fled for the indoors when it started to rain.

“You’re going to come home with me, you’re going to forget this ever happened, and you’re going to be _who you should be”_

He let go of the warlock and let his fists relax, he knew his father expected a fight, but he was tired.

“Percival, if you don’t come back with me, I will find your little friends and I will make _sure_ they are killed”

He stood up, his knees were bloodied from the fall and the rain was making them sting, but he didn’t care, he walked towards his father, defeated and held out his hand.

“Just take me home” He said “I just want to go home”

“You will live with me no matter what you remember?”

“I’m your son” He said “Of course”

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dob and James' segment is happening concurrently to Corazon riding back to the manor after overhearing Edward and his father, but Dob and James don't follow him back to the manor for reasons revealed in the next chapter. Corazon wakes up -later-, not the next day, after his father and Edward knock him out. 
> 
> \------
> 
> The name Hennington keeps accidentally changing into Henningway in this chapter and I can't remember if I called him Henningway before lol
> 
> \------
> 
> While some of the memories are breaking through at the end of this chapter, Corazon still doesn't remember -who- he is, he does remember his father ordering the warlock to take his memories away.


	6. Percival's Last Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything comes to a head as the guild plans to rescue their friend.

“There’s no use” Merilwen said “We can’t find Katie anywhere, she’s probably already left the town”

 

Prudence nodded in agreement and then yawned.

The afternoon had dragged on, and at one point there was a massive downpour of rain that forced them back to the tavern, which the old man wasn’t happy about, but they ordered a round of drinks, so he couldn’t complain.

“Maybe Katie didn’t have anything to do with it”

“But she _was_ planning something” Merilwen said “What if she’s still planning it?” she took a sip of her ale “I mean think about it, even if Cor’s father took him, that’s just a rock in Katie’s plans, what if she’ll come back to do something?”

“Hopefully we’ll be out of here before then” Egbert said “And I’d really like if we could stop talking about Cor”

Merilwen frowned, and Prudence asked the question she was too polite to ask “Egbert, what is your problem? We’re looking for our friend and you don’t seem to care”

“I’m the reason he was out there with Tobias, maybe I feel guilty about that, maybe I also remember that I let you fry Cornelius back there”

“What?” Merilwen asked

“He deserved it!” Prudence said, possibly a little louder than she should have as some other patrons looked around at their table. “He lied to you, he used you, and he’s got some idea to use Corazón as payment”

“What?!” Merilwen asked again, looking from Prudence to Egbert “What are you two talking about?”

Egbert sighed and set his cup down “When I left Corazón in that little shack with Tobias, Prudence was really hurt, she wouldn’t wake up, so I went to find help… some kind of healing potion or elixir or something”

The rain hit against the windows at a faster pace, and Merilwen was unable to see anything outside, she assumed the people who had been out and about in the square were now, hopefully safe inside, she thought of Dob and James who must be soaked on the deck of the Joyful Damnation.

“I went to a shop, Cornelius’ shop, he was acting out of his mind and then I found out he had been cursed sometime in the past for some reason, we went to another shop and the keeper there, Ingrid Ingersoll… proprietor of The Farrant Shop-”

“Why is it called The Farrant shop if her last name is Ingersoll?” Merilwen piped up

Egbert gave an exaggerated shrug “I don’t know, if we run into her though, I wouldn’t ask, she’ll start crying again, anyway…” He took another big sip of his alcohol and took a breath, smoke started curling out of his nose as he did this which prompted the tavern keeper to point at a sign hung up on the far side of the bar

**NO SMOKING.**

He looked apologetically at the man and put his head down on the table, he didn’t say anything for a while until Merilwen poked him on the nose.

“Egbert?”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Your story?”

“Right! So, Anyway, she had some sort of temporary cure for Cornelius’ ailments and he took me to Amelia”

“Amelia?”

“ _Not_ the same Amelia that Corazón and Dob met back in Rutherglen, I asked” He said, Merilwen gave him an exasperated stare

“No, I mean… who is she?”

“She’s a vampire” He said casually “She had the right thing I needed to save Prudence, but in return she wanted something, so Cornelius gave her a name, which is all she needs to track him down”

“So Corazón could be in more trouble than we thought?” Merilwen asked “And you were just.. never going to mention that?”

“It’s been a really long couple of days, I’ve forgotten most of everything that’s happened”

She pulled a couple of pieces of gold out of her pocket and set them on the table, to their right a couple of people sat at a table were sharing town gossip

“I hear Lord Milquetoast is throwing a party in honor of Hennington tonight” a woman with black hair past her shoulders said

“Did you know the heir’s back?”

“Oh really?”

“It’s what I heard anyhow, didya know it’s been _six_ years since he’s been here?”

The woman clicked her tongue “He seems like a brat”

Merilwen looked at her friends and then back at the group of people, she slipped out of the booth and tapped the black haired woman on the shoulder “Hello” She said, almost forcibly having a flash back to doing this exact thing by the fountains outside several hours before, at least it wasn’t the same people this time.

“Yes?”

“You mentioned the Milquetoast heir”

“I did”

“Where is he?”

“Well I’d assume he’s at the manor, of course, but I saw him walking through the square not three days ago now”

Merilwen turned back to her friends “We have to get out of here” She said “Corazón’s likely at the manor, and we need to find him before things get worse, if there’s a vampire after him…”

“What about Dob and not-Corazón?”

“We’re going back to the ship to get them, and we’ll all go up to the manor together”

“We need a plan” Egbert said

“We’ll make a plan, right now we just need to start.”

 

* * *

 

The house staff said nothing when the Lord returned with his son, the two of them soaked to the bone and dripping water all over the freshly cleaned floors, they did not ask why Percy looked so upset, nor did they ask why the Lord was grasping his son’s hand with enough strength to open a tough jar.

Percy didn’t blame them, it was none of their business and they were wise to stay out of it lest they become targets of his father’s hostility.  He was led to his room, where his father left him for quite some time before coming back with two members of the house staff, Winston the Butler and Alice the Maid.

Percy was sitting on the bed when his father came back and spoke to him for the first time since he took him back home

“You are to stay in this room, do you understand me?”

Percy looked at the floor instead of his father, his heart was thudding in his chest and his throat felt like it was being squeezed by an angry octopus. He simply nodded.

“Percival, do look at me when I speak to you” His father said, Percy could tell he was starting to lose his patience with the boy.

“I shall stay here in this room, of course I will”

“And Winston and Alice here are going to stand guard to make sure that you don’t try anything” He nodded to them and they left the room to stand at either end of the door. “Now I need you to tell me what you remember”

“You said it doesn’t matter”

“I said you won’t leave, it matters to me. That warlock is going to get his comeuppance for ruining this”

“I don’t remember everything, you said something about my friends, I know I have them… but I don’t know who they are, I can’t remember.”

This was true enough, Percy was only able to recall shadows of memories, and even they slipped through his mind faster than he could hold onto them. Looking at his father at that moment, he vaguely remembered them standing on a boat together.

“Perhaps that is for the best, you are better off here, Percy”

He gave his father a withering stare “I sincerely doubt that, I used to have… freedom” He said slowly, trying to focus on grasping a memory “I used to be-”

“No, you used to be _nothing._ and now you get to be my heir”

“Does that mean I get your fortune when you _die_?”

To his surprise, his father started chuckling “Now now Percival, you wouldn’t harm you dear father, would you?”

He rose from the bed and walked over to stand directly in front of his father “I wouldn’t test that theory, if I were you. _Father”_

The man remained unfazed as his son threatened him, he simply turned to the door “You will respect me”

“Do you think they won’t come look for me?” He asked “Whoever my friends are, do you think they’ll let me live here?”

“Your friends coming to your aide is a non issue” Lord Milquetoast said confidently “I’ll make sure of that, and again, I repeat. You _will_ respect me”

“Or what?”

“It would bring me no pleasure to see you killed, but if you don’t play the game…. Let’s just say that you lose more than reputation”

With those final words, he left the room and Percy could hear the special locks his father placed on the door clicking, he was trapped and there was no way out.

And if he didn’t show respect to his Father, he knew that the man would have him killed.  

_Corazón_

He thought he heard something behind him, but when he turned around there was nothing there except a chill in the room coming in through the windows. His father did nothing about the windows because there was no way to climb down from them without breaking your neck or worse.

_Corazón_

_magic_

He heard it again, the voice surrounding him as though it were a chorus of people speaking all at once. “What do you want?” he whispered.

_magic_

_magic_

_magic_

“You want magic? I don’t have any ma-” He stopped in the middle of his sentence, a shadow of something in the back of his mind, images of lights dancing around him and a loud knocking sound repeating. Even though the images made no sense he knew, the voice was trying to tell him something.

To remind him.

“I have magic?” He asked “What kind of magic? Help me out here”

Suddenly a gust of wind blew through the room, knocking several books off the shelves at the other end of his bed, they were books on folktale and magic, but one of them seemed to be instructions on how to perform a spell.

He flipped through the pages of the other books and read as much as he could, he wasn’t sure what the voice was trying to remind him of, and after a while he was going to give up. Until his eye caught a spell.

DISPELL MAGIC:

_Used to remove magical effects from a creature or person, can be used against curses._

Curses? Was he cursed? He had no idea and no way of knowing if that were true, and no way of knowing if the spell would work, but he was willing to try anything.

He took a deep breath and tried to focus, if he truly knew how to perform magic, he wanted to access that part of his fractured mind, and hopefully it would help him.

 

* * *

Dob started to run up the path after the horse, he was excited at the prospect of finding his friend that he didn’t consider that horses were generally faster than orcs running on foot.

 

He didn’t even look behind him to see if James was also running with him, but he heard the footfalls of someone behind him, before he could take a moment to breathe, he was stopped by an angry looking man in a burnt coat.

“Where do you think you’re going, Orc?”

Dob backed away from the man as James caught up with him “I…”

“And your little friend, you must be Corazón” The man said with a smile, some of the skin on his face was burned off and left him with an extremely unsettling appearance, his face clicked with the information Egbert imparted on them a day earlier.

“You’re that Cornelius guy!” Dob shouted

“You want to keep it down? I’m not looking for the whole damn town to know my business, all I want is your little friend” He looked at James.

Dob also looked at James “I… that, there’s been a misunderstanding” he started, but this didn’t stop Cornelius from advancing on James.

“You’re going to make me a rich man, a free man, your blood will undo a curse I have lived with for many years”

“My _blood_?” James backed away from the back, he tripped over something and fell onto his back.  “Uh, Dob… Plan?!”

“Yeah” Dob said, sneaking up behind Cornelius and jumping on his back, covering his eyes with his hands “Guess who?”

“Augh, get the hell off me! I promised her blood and she’s going to get blood!”

“Dob what is he talking about?” James asked, scrambling to his feet to get out of the way of Cornelius, who was being steered into a circle by Dob.

“Sort of a long story, but the guy you look like has a _lot_ of people who want him dead right now”

“Perfect, you know.. I am going to _kill_ Lord Milquetoast”

“Can we focus on the guy whose trying to kill us now?” Dob said, trying to steer the man into a wall. He didn’t have many of his weapons on him, only a small dagger, which was now lying somewhere on the ground.

Unfortunately for him, Cornelius was stronger than he looked and was able to lose Dob, knocking him off onto the ground.

“Dob” James said to his right “I have an idea and you’re going to have to deal with it”

“That doesn’t sound good” Dob said, pushing himself back up from the ground, a little sore but no worse for wear than usual, even half-orcs were made of stronger stuff.

“Hey!” James shouted at Cornelius “You want me?”

Cornelius looked at him “You’re damn right I do, your father destroyed my life, he destroyed my business and he’s the reason my soul is owned by that wretched vampire”

“Catch me then” He said, breaking off into a run. Dob watched as the half-burnt man chased down a doppelganger of his friend.

He then remembered.

“Corazón!” He rushed up the hill, hoping to follow the tracks of the horse that had come through here.

After a while of running, he found himself inexplicably lost up the pathway that should have led to the Milquetoast Manor, it seemed like there was a sort of intersection and this path had broken off from the main path to lead somewhere else.

Rain started to sprinkle over him from ahead and he walked on for a few miles, not finding any sign of other people, or any sign of the direction he came in at, he was nowhere near the path, and nowhere near the manor.

“Corazón!” he shouted

“Corazón, Where are you!?”

Someone, or something made a cracking sound as they walked over the branches, Dob turned around and was face to face with an orc, taller in stature than him and with more defined muscles.  He was quite a sight, one eye had an eyepatch over it and the other had a yellow tint to it, and a scar ran across from one end of his mouth to the other.

“Ah, you’re looking for Corazón too?”

“Uh…”

“Maybe you’ll make a good experiment”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m Tobias, it’s nice to meet you” He said, a wicked grin flashing over his deformed mouth for a split second.

 

* * *

Lord Milquetoast made way back to his son’s door to check on him after a half-hour had passed, he nodded to Winston and Alice, who were guarding the door.

 

“Your assistance is needed downstairs” He said “it is nearly time for the party, I will stay here in the interim”

They both gave him a small bow before heading down the stairs in rather a hurry, he turned to the door and gently tapped on it.

“Percival? The party is to start soon. You can come join the festivities if you promise to behave yourself”

“I would rather die a thousand painful deaths” his son said from the other side of the door. The Lord sighed heavily.

“Percival, it’s a party, you’re going to be living here. You may as well get to know the whose who of the high society. Accept that this is who you are now”

“I have a question father”

“Ask away, child”

“How much money did you pay Edward to kidnap me? I remember he’s the one who grabbed me from behind on the way to… something, I can’t remember”

“Stop trying to remember your old life, and accept your new one”

“Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve kidnapped your son, you’ve taken everything he had and ripped it away from his mind, you’ve had a mind damaging spell performed on him god knows how many times, and now you’re asking me, your _son_ to forgive you, to forget my old life that was taken from me and accept your sick twisted new life that YOU have chosen for me”

He stopped for a moment, and Lord Milquetoast heard his son on the other side of the door, trying not to cry while saying his piece.

“And for what?” He asked “For WHAT?” this time he shouted, and then the sound of something being thrown against the other side of the room. The Lord heard the unmistakable sounds of books being thrown, the sound of breaking glass and ripped papers.

“For what?” He asked once more, his voice cracking “Some sick and twisted status symbol? Because it can’t be for love, if you _ever_ loved me, you would have never done this.”

“So now, I have to live with the fact that not only did my father have me kidnapped, erase my memory and lock me up as a prisoner…”

Lord Milquetoast looked down at his feet, even though he couldn’t see his son, he almost felt his eyes burning a hole into him.

“I have to live with the fact that my father doesn’t love me”

“Percival…”

“Father, you had many chances to be a good person, and you threw them away every single time. If I ran away before, it’s because of you”

He swallowed hard, he almost considered opening the door. He almost considered…

It happened slowly at first, and then all at once. He knew every step of the way that what he had done was immoral, disturbing and wrong, he knew it was selfish reasons that he held his son captive in that room, he knew it was not because he truly thought it was best for Percy.

“I was happy” Percy said after some silence

“I don’t remember a lot, but I remember that my life without you was _happy_ ”

His son hated him, for very valid reasons. His only child was on the other side of that door and wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if he had a weapon. Lord Milquetoast sat down against the door and felt the room spinning, he closed his eyes.

“Percy”

“What?”

“I know… it means nothing-”

“If you say you’re sorry, I will rip your hair out” He said “That one word doesn’t undo this, you must realize that”

“I…”

“You kidnapped me”

“You took my _life_ from me!”

“Who was I?”

“You changed your name to Corazón” Lord Milquetoast told his son “You wanted to be a pirate, you wanted to sail the seven seas and plunder for treasure. So you did, you ran away from this home six years ago”

“And you didn’t care for that, I can assume”

“I thought you were being an idiot, a dreamer and a fool. You were always so obsessed with the storybooks and you romanticized a life of freedom among the sea, I never understood the fascination”

“I don’t remember any of that”

“I was specific about it being removed”

“You’re a _horrible_ man”

There was a lull in the conversation where all the Lord could hear was the swinging of his son’s legs off the edge of the bed.

“Did you ever even like me, Father? Or was I just a constant disappointment to you?”

The Lord took a moment before he answered, his eyes were still closed and he was afraid to open them as the room may still be spinning, and he’d have to face the reality of what he had done.

“Of course I did, Percival”

“Did?”

“Do”

“You don’t get to claim you care about me now”

“You are my son”

“Funny that you remember that now but watched as Edward pulled a gun on me and did _nothing_ ”

Lord Milquetoast did not respond to this, but let the words sink into him as he sat, he rested his head against the door.

“Tell me the truth about what you’ve done to me”

“Edward and I planned it out the night you attacked me in the alley, when he brought you back here unconscious, we had your hair cut and your face shaven”

“I didn’t want any of the pirate left in you, I wanted you to be normal”

“Fuck you” Percy said with such force it could have actually physically hurt.

“Percival, I have a party to attend.”

“Wait! Are you going to let me out?”

Lord Milquetoast rose from the floor and smoothed out his clothes, heading towards the staircase he gave one last look to Percy’s room, he could hear his son screaming.

“LET ME OUT”

“ARE YOU JUST GOING TO LET ME DIE IN HERE!?”

“ _I’m sorry_ , Percival” He said in a whisper to himself as he descended the stairs “I really am”

 

* * *

“Katie” Merilwen said as her, Prudence and Egbert ran back to the Joyful Damnation. Katie was hunched over a trunk of things they had looted, salvaged or stolen on some of their recent adventures.

 

“What the hell are you doing?” Prudence said, stepping forward as arcs of eldritch energy formed around her hands.

“I’m taking what belongs to me” Katie said, straightening up and crossing her arms “My life was _destroyed_ by you idiots, none of the others thieves took me serious after the Solstice. Word got around that I was duped by some beginners..”

“Hey” Egbert said “We may be beginners but Corazón surely isn’t”

“He’s the worst one, he’s a phony” Katie said with a laugh.  “Did you know I saw him in the back alley at Edwards stupid little party the other crying his eyes out about how his daddy doesn’t love him and how he hates who he was, bla bla bla”

Merilwen scoffed “How can you be that heartless?”

“I’ve had a bad time lately, first I was cursed, lost my whole crew, then I was duped and basically made a laughing stock in the world of the thives’, I can’t show my face anywhere anymore. It’s spread from Tanner’s Folly to Casterfalls, and here.. I thought I was safe here in Abelforth, but no, people found out. and I have to leave again”

“You’re not taking Cora’s ship”

She put her hands up “Wouldn’t dream of it, this ships too ugly for me anyway. I was just taking a couple of things and I’ll be on my way.”

“Those are _our_ things!” Egbert said “Give them back”

“No”

“Give them back or I’ll eldritch blast your face right off” Prudence said

Katie rolled her eyes and kicked at the sack she had been stuffing things into “It’s all in there, keep it if you want. I’ll take this ring though”

“That’s not yours” Merilwen said

“Yeah, that’s Corazón’s” Egbert said, smoke curling out of his nostrils

Katie looked at the three of them and dropped the ring onto the deck, it thudded against the wood several times and she shrugged “Fine, I’ll just get out of your hair then”

She started to walk off the ship and back into the small harbor, Merilwen wasn’t certain but she almost thought she heard a laugh from the blonde haired woman as she boarded the only other ship in the port. Her own.

Merilwen turned to the others “Dob and James aren’t here, where do you think they went?”

“Do you think not-Corazón escaped and Dob’s chased after him?”

She shrugged “I don’t want to leave Dob if he’s in danger”

“But” Egbert said “We have to get to that party tonight, and we’re going to need disguises”

“Lets put our best outfits on so we can ruin them with blood!” Prudence shouted enthusiastically

Egbert and Merilwen took a small step away from the warlock and exchanged a glance “Or” Merilwen said “We can not murder anyone in Corazón’s family”

“I’m excited” Egbert said “I mean, excited to save Corazón but also excited because I didn’t get to see his manor”

“I only saw a bit of it” Merilwen said “It’s nice, perhaps a little too large. It’s easy to lose yourself there”

The three of them went through their clothes, trying to find the best things to wear to a posh party, Merilwen decided on a nice green dress she had bought from one of the shops they visited on an adventure, she altered it with bits of nature, flowers, vines and more. 

Egbert decided on a black tuxedo with a matching top hat, Merilwen wasn’t sure where he got it from, but she assumed he had taken it from when they visited Rutherglen, and Prudence was wearing a delicate looking dress with long transparent red sleeves and an intricate design running along the hem, it almost looked like a ball gown.

She remembered the amount of beautiful clothing in Horatio’s shop and they all showed up to the Hawthorne Estate dressed ridiculously, she shook her head at the memory.

This posh party was going to be different.

They were going to get their friend back, and Merilwen was determined not to spill any wine down her clothes.

 

* * *

He pounded against the door hard enough to bruise his hands

 

“Winston!” He shouted

“ANYONE?!”

The party was likely to be starting soon, all the guests would be filing in and they would ask about him, they would ask where the young Lord was.

_Young_

_Lord_

He turned around, the room was completely trashed from his tantrum, he had thrown books off the shelf, he had ripped pages out of them and balled them up in fury, he broke a couple of vases as well.

But standing among the mess was a man, or what Percy thought looked like a man, there was something familiar about him and yet he couldn’t place who he was, or where he saw him before.

“Are you real?”

The man blinked “You need to remember”

“Remember what?”

“Who you are”

Percy took a step closer to the man, he tried to touch the man’s arm but his hand went right through it, disturbing the air in the room and making the image of the man ripple as if he were simply a reflection in the water.

“You’re not even here”

“You need to remember who you are, Corazón”

“How? My father made sure those memories were erased, I don’t even know… if I can get them back”

He walked over to the bed, littered with ripped up pages and overturned books and sat upon the covers and looked at his hands, they were covered in cuts and bruises. 

The man sat beside him on the bed, though he made no impression on the mattress.

“I’m sorry I ever said he was a good man, I was… I was wrong” He looked down “I blame myself for this”

“What did you have to do with any of this?”

“It’s not what I did, it’s what I didn’t do to stop any of this” He looked at Percy, his expression somber

“Corazón” He said “You’re better than him, and you deserve a better life than simply being his prisoner”

“If that’s true, why am I here?”

“Because of one man’s selfish actions”

“If you knew my father, can you tell me if he-”

“He told you”

“He’s lied to me about everything, why would this be different?”

There was a silence that fell over the room, Percy could hear some noises from downstairs, the guests were starting to arrive.

“Did my father love me?”

“I don’t know”

“That’s not the answer I wanted”

“That’s the answer you’re going to get, Corazón”

“How am I supposed to get out of here?”

“With help” The man said simply

There was a loud thud against the window and Percy jumped off his bed to check out what it was, it sounded like a bird or something had flown right into it but he couldn’t see anything outside.

“Hello?” he shouted out the window “That’s odd… you heard that too, right?” He turned around to face the man only to find that he was no longer there, just Percy, alone in a trashed room.

 

* * *

Merilwen, Prudence and Egbert walked through the gates of the Milquetoast Manor and up the path, following along the other party guests, Merilwen took this opportunity to turn to speak to the others

 

“We have to be casual, that means nobody make a scene.”

“Why are you looking at me?!” Egbert asked

“And isn’t Lord Toast going to remember us?” Prudence asked “We’re a tiefling, a wood elf and a…”

“Dragon-man” Egbert offered

“Right, so…”

Merilwen sighed “Just stay out of his cone of vision or whatever, he’s a very man who owns a manor and is having a party, there’s so many people here tonight. There’s no way he’s going to even see us”

“I’m not exactly inconspicuous, Meril.”

“Good evening” The Doorman said, he looked to be in a bad mood, as if he hadn’t slept in a very long time “What are your names?”

Merilwen gulped and gave her friends a panicked glance before Prudence pushed her way to the front “Hello” she said sweetly “We’re friends of the heir”

“Do you think people don’t try that?” He asked “If you really know the heir, what’s his middle name?”

Egbert froze in a state of panic, and Merilwen tried to calm him down by giving his arm a comforting pat, Prudence was quick on her feet though

“That’s not public information” She said with sweet smile

“Hey wait a minute, anyone could know that it’s not public information if they don’t know it, try again missy. What colors ‘is hair?”

“Brown”

He thought for a moment “Huh, I guess anyone could know that.. What about his eyes?”

“How the hell would I know that?!” Prudence said angrily, balling her fists, Merilwen stepped forward and stopped Prudence from punching the man in the face

“His eyes are blue”

“Right! I believe she knows him, I don’t believe you know him at all” He said to Prudence “I don’t believe you’ve ever even met him”

“Have you?” Egbert asked

“ ‘Av I what now?”

“Have you ever met the heir?”

“That’s neither here nor there”

“You missed a chance to say that’s neither here nor heir”

“Shut up! You’re not coming in, you on the other hand… you are” He stepped aside to let Merilwen pass through, she turned around with an apologetic shrug.

“Keep it moving, keep it moving.” the door man said in an irritated voice, and Merilwen was pushed forward by the influx of people coming into the foyer. She looked around the grand entrance that she had very recently been in, but it felt different this time, she felt, extravagant.

She looked around at all the rich people, and though the excess was over the top and the false niceness was almost sickening, she felt like it was a nice change of pace to their usual hangouts, dirty taverns and dusty crypts.  She grabbed a glass of wine from a nearby table and started mingling, at the very least to overhear any useful information.

“I had a feeling Arthur would be here tonight, and he’s not” a woman said sadly

“Dorothy, you need to stop. Arthur is married”

“Richard, I cannot believe you would say something like that when you cheated on _your_ wife”

“I think everyone here has thought of adultery, it’s like a rite of passage or something” he said listlessly

Merilwen sighed and took a sip of her drink, this was going to be a long night, wasn’t it?

She looked around the party for any signs of Corazón, but he was nowhere to be found, as she moved through the party, she overheard more and more snippets of conversations she wasn’t interested in, until she came across a couple in the hall by the grand staircase.

“Have you seen Percival tonight?”

“I haven’t, I believe he’s upstairs”

“What kind of a entitled brat doesn’t even come downstairs for his father’s party?”

“It’s probably penance for running in the first place”

Merilwen slipped by them and made her way up the stairs, as silently as she could, she heard the noise of a cork popping from somewhere in the mansion and took a tense breath. She was now on the landing and decided the easiest way to sneak around was to be an animal.

It only took a moment for her to transform into her wildcat form and head to the end of the hall, where she knew Corazón’s room to be. There was someone standing in front of it, a younger looking butler by the looks of him, he also had a key to the locks dangling out of his pocket. Merilwen knew exactly what to do.

She bounded over to the man and meowed loudly, he gasped and looked down “Oh my dear”  he bent down to give her a pet and scratch her behind the ears

“Meow” she said, tilting her head slightly

“Hello” the man said softly “I’m Patrick, how did you get in here?”

“Meow”

“Oh really? That’s so interesting” He said in a slightly high pitched voice

“Meow”

He took the keys out of his pocket and started jingling them in front of her, she batted at them several times before remembering what she was trying to do, and then she let her claws out, scratching the man’s hand painfully. He dropped the keys and looked at his hand.

“Oh dear, I’m bleeding. Best clean this up before I get blood on the Lord’s carpet.” He stood up “I’ll come back for you and we can put you outside, alright?”

“Meow”

His eyes lit up as he walked away, holding his blooded hand. Merilwen momentarily transformed back into a wood elf to unlock the door, she wasn’t good with keys in her cat form. Once the locks were clicked, she transformed again and pushed against the door with all of her cat strength.  It creaked open and she saw a man sitting on the bed, pouring over books about magic.

She had never seen Corazón read in his life, but she supposed he must have done, since he knew so much about pirate lore and life at sea.

“Meow” she said, causing him to look up from his book and raise an eyebrow in confusion

“Hello? I suppose you aren’t on the guest list for Father’s party?”

“Meow”

She took this moment to transform back into a wood elf, and quickly held out her hand “Don’t scream” she said “I’m a friend”

“A friend?!” He asked “You just… you just broke into my room as a cat and now you’re not a cat and you’re in my room!”

“I’m here to rescue you” she said simply

“Are you one of Corazón’s.. I mean _my_ friends?” He shook his head “Sorry, I… I’m having memory problems”

“Yes, I’m Merilwen”

“Merilwen?” He repeated softly “I…I kicked a chicken once, and you were furious, you _hated_ me”

She shook her head “I never hated you. You have to come with me, now.. We have to get you out of here”

“But” he looked around and gestured aimlessly at the walls “There’s no way we can get down from here, and I severely doubt going through a large party full of people is a good idea”

“I have the perfect plan!” Merilwen said “Do you happen to have glasses lying around anywhere?”

“I have _my_ glasses”

She blinked “Wait, you have glasses?”

“They are reading glasses, why, have I ever used them around you?”

Merilwen shook her head and tried to stifle a giggle, which seemed to irritate him.

“Are you going to tell me why I need these or are you just going to laugh at me?” He asked, grabbing the glasses off the table to the side of his bed. He put them on and Merilwen turned away from him, biting her bottom lip.

“Um” She said

“Are you still laughing?”

“No, no of course not. Anyway” She turned around again, crossing the room to his dresser and opening drawers “Anything in here you absolutely hate?”

“There’s a really ugly purple outfit that my father used to make me wear to fancy dinner parties”

Merilwen searched for a moment and pulled out a dreadful looking coat “Is it this one?”

Corazón nodded and Merilwen made a face “It has cuff _frills”_

“I told you it was bad”

“Doesn’t matter, we need to alter this slightly.” She pulled her hair adornments out and searched around Corazón’s desk for something sharp “Do you have a knife or something?”

“I..”

“Okay, of course, you don’t remember”

“I had a dagger” he said slowly, as if the memories were slowly coming back to him

“Where was it?”

“In my pocket”

“Of what outfit?”

“The one I was wearing”

Merilwen groaned impatiently “That isn’t helping me” she said frustrated

“I’m sorry, I can’t remember!”

She shook her head and searched around in his dresser and then closet, searching through all the pockets of his various coats until she pricked herself on something sharp “ _Hell”_ she swore under her breath and grabbed the dagger.

“Found it” She twirled it around in her hand, it was a beautifully ornate dagger, but holding it made her feel uneasy, something bad happened with this dagger, she could almost feel it.

The last glints of late evening sunlight coming in through the window reflected off the daggers surface and cast an eerie glow on part of Corazón’s face. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the dagger, it was as if he were in a trance.

“Corazón?”

She approached the bed and carefully set the dagger down before sitting beside her friend. He was unmoving, unblinking. She put her hand on his shoulder and gently shook him.

“Are you okay?”

Raindrops started to fall lightly against the window, Merilwen shook him again. He turned to her, a confused expression on his face.

“Who are you?”

“Merilwen”

“Why do you have that dagger?” He said, a touch of fear to his voice, he slowly edged away from her on the bed, and when she reached for the dagger he got to his feet and bolted to the door

“Corazón!” Merilwen shouted “I.. I’m here to rescue you, did you just forget that?”

“You have a dagger!” He turned the door handle and ran out into the hall, Merilwen grabbed the dagger and ran out after him.

“Corazón!” She shouted, running after him as he made his way down the grand staircase and through the main hall, as they ran through the manor things changed around them, the room was full of happy go lucky party members one moment and covered in blood in the dark the next.

She stopped on the spot and looked around as the room flashed brightly one moment and then became bathed in darkness, when it was bright again she was the center of attention as everyone had started to look at her, including a man holding a wine glass in one hand and an inscrutable look on his face. Lord Milquetoast. She shook her head and started giving chase to the pirate again.

“Corazón!” She yelled after him again, he kept running until he ran out the side door, she followed him and was outside in what appeared to be a garden area, the sky was quickly getting darker and the rain was starting to come down harder around her.

“Leave me alone!” he shouted “I don’t remember who you are!”

“I’m your friend!” she yelled, she could barely see Corazón through the rain that was almost coming down in sheets.

“Give chase!” Merilwen heard behind her “She’s trying to get my son”

“Shit” Merilwen said under her breath, the Lord must be sending out the guards he had stationed around the manor, presumably to keep poor people out of the estate, she heard the footfalls of several men behind her but she couldn’t see anyone, she kept running after Corazón.

“Please, Cora! Just stop running. I’m here to help you”

“Stop calling me that!” he shouted, thunder started to roar in the distance and Merilwen saw lightning striking against the sky. She followed Corazón to the edge of the woods where she slipped in the mud forming in the rain. She heard the men gaining on her and shouted

“Corazón! Wait!”

He fell to his knees, beneath the rain and thunder, she heard a pained scream, and then a louder scream.

And then the shuffle of several feet even closer behind her, she pushed her self up and ran to Corazón, helping him up and trying to help him walk further but he pushed her away. “I can’t… Merilwen.. It’s, this pain”

“What is it?”

“My memories, I think they’re all coming back at once and…” There was an odd quiet that washed over them, the rain had slowed to a trickle and the thunder stopped as if it had never started, she looked around.  Five guards with guns drawn and pointed at them came through the clearing.

“Weapons down” a voice said, walking past the men and stopping several paces away from her and Corazón.

“Step away from my son”

“No” Merilwen said, standing in front of him as if she wear a shield, and Lord Milquetoast was a faulty bomb. “You will not come anywhere near him”

“What are you going to do to stop me?”

She reached out to the animals of the forest, the deer, the squirrels, the bears. She took a deep breath and asked them if they can help her, she didn’t want to hurt the man, but she wanted him to know who he was messing with.

They were suddenly circled by an array of growling animals, eyes everywhere, seemingly glowing in the low light.

“They will do anything I ask them to do”

“I have guns” he indicated the men around him, several other men were running up to catch up with the rest of the group. Her and Corazón were outnumbered.

“Percy”

Corazón, who had been on his knees and clutching his head rose to his feet, opening his eyes “We have magic” he said, the men around his father suddenly losing their footing, Merilwen realized what Corazón had just done and looked over to him.

“Corazón?!”

“I remember _everything”_ He said, angrily taking a few steps forward, closer to his father who looked as though he were afraid to move, whether or not it was because of the grease that had magically appeared at his feet, Merilwen was uncertain.

What she was certain of was something unseen grabbed the dagger from her, Corazón caught it in his hand and pointed it towards his father. “Give me a reason not to do it”

“I’m your father” He said calmly

“I have no father” Corazón said, he stepped right in front of his father and grabbed him by the wrist, placing the dagger in his hands

“Go ahead, this is what you want, isn’t it? If I can’t be what you want, you want me dead”

He took a couple steps back “So go ahead and do it, father dearest. Kill your son”

“Corazón…” Merilwen said

“Oh what is it, father?” Corazón said sarcastically “It’s fine if someone else does the dirty work for you but you don’t want the blood on your hands?”

“Percival”

“That is not my name, and I notice you haven’t done anything” Merilwen watched the dagger move out of Lord Milquetoast’s limp grasp of it and back to Corazón. He threw it on the ground where it stuck blade side up in the dirt.

“You will tell _everyone_ what you did” He began “You will ruin your own reputation”

“Percy, you know that I cannot do that, and I cannot let you leave”

Merilwen saw several people running up behind Lord Milquetoast, and watched as the four of them slid around in the grease, colliding with the man and knocking them all to the ground.

Prudence, Egbert, Dob, and James all looked up from the ground at her and Corazón and smiled sheepishly.

“Dob!” Merilwen said “Where the hell have you been?”

“Me and James wanted to look for you guys, so we left the Joyful Damnation and went to the town square and you weren’t there and then we thought we saw Corazón on a horse and chased after him but some guy named Cornelius was mad at Egbert and Prudence so he tried to kill us, and then I had the misfortune of running into an angry orc named Tobias”

_Tobias, tobias tobias._

Merilwen heard the name repeating through whispers that seemed to be carried on the wind, it rang out until it almost became deafening until it stopped, and everything was peaceful again. She looked around to make sure the others heard that, and judging by their  confused expressions, they did.

“Uh, anyway” Dob said “I knocked him out with my magic, ran the hell out of there and ran into Prudence and Egbert who told me that Merilwen was trying to rescue you” He said, looking to Corazón “And it appears to have worked, except now we can’t get up because everything is so slippery”

“Not so fast” Milquetoast said, he wasn’t quite able to stand up because of the grease, but he was now holding a gun and pointing it directly at his son.  “You will not be leaving this estate, you will be my heir whether you want to or not”

“No” Corazón said “See, that’s not going to work for me, I have a lot of cool pirate things to catch up on and, being a stuffy aristocrat totally gets in the way of that” He walked over to his father, bent down and grabbed the gun out of his hand.

“So uncivilized” He shook his head, tossing the gun elsewhere and hearing it go off.

“Anyway” He announced “Me and my friends are going to leave now”

“Percy!” His father shouted, he didn’t sound angry anymore, he sounded hurt, almost. “Percy.. I’m sorry”

“It’s kind of too late for that”

“I know… I.. You are my son”

Corazón sighed “If you’re quite finished, I have a lot to go do.”

“You’re my son, Percy. I failed you as a father, I know that now”

Corazón wrenched the dagger out of the ground and pocketed it, he leaned over his father, the man was unable to stand without slipping, Corazón went through the pockets of his coat and took several full coin purses without a second thought. He patted his father on the arm

“Thanks for the coin, Dad”

“Can you ever forgive me?”

Corazón rose to his feet and turned to a group of his friends, and for some reason a blonde man wearing clothes that looked like something he would wear, including a pirate hat, Corazón bent down and picked the hat off the man, sticking it on his head “You guys wanna get out of here and get a drink or something?” 

They all happily nodded, and Merilwen and him helped them out of the grease trap, they all walked ahead of him out of the forest clearing, Merilwen stopped when she noticed Corazón was lagging behind, he stood there taking one last look at his father.

He took a few steps closer to his father and extended his hand, Lord Milquetoast looked up at him, Corazón nodded and his father grabbed onto his hand, steadying himself and leaning on his son so as not to fall in the grease.

“Father” he said curtly

“Percival” His father replied

Corazón groaned and turned to walk away back to where she stood

“Corazón” his father said, causing the pirate to turn back

“That isn’t going to make me forgive you”

“It’s a start” His father said

“Goodbye, Father” He said, turning to Merilwen to shake his head. “We should catch up with them, Egbert’s probably already had his weight in alcohol”

“Do you think?”

“Nah, it’s probably fine”

“What about your father?”

Corazón shrugged and looked back once more “I’m sure he’ll be fine, he has to live with what he’s done”

“I suppose you’re right about that”

The pair of them walked out of the clearing, and off the property for what she knew Corazón hoped was the last time, as the gate creaked shut behind them, she smiled as they caught up with the others a little ways down the path, the group walked into town as night fell proper on the small village of Abelforth.

 


	7. Sundown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the party relaxes, Corazon makes a choice.

They were all sat in the tavern, chatting happily, drinking heavily, but Corazón was looking out the window at the darkness of the night, he was almost disconnected from the laughter and warmth in the tavern.

 Though he knew he shouldn’t be. They all had so many things to say, so many stories to tell him, they relayed information he wasn’t listening to, he just kept nodding and taking sips of his alcohol. He hadn’t eaten in a really long time, but the tavern wasn’t serving food at this time of night, the hunger didn’t really bother him of course, nothing did. Except the faint smell of skunk in the distance coming in through the open door.

The rain had stopped, and it was like it never happened at all, not even a trace of clouds in the sky.  Not even a memory of the storm.

They decided to stay in Abelforth one final night, to get some rest before setting out in the morning, but Corazón couldn’t sleep, and as everyone else did, he snuck out of the tavern and headed to the docks to step on board his ship.

As he made the trip, he thought his of how his father would be back at the Manor now, maybe he had told everyone lies of what happened, maybe he was begging for pity from the people. He could envision it now.

“My son ran away again!”

Everyone would flock to his side, everyone would support him and nobody would know the truth, he climbed on board his ship and went straight to his cabin to write a letter.

_To whom it may concern,_

_Lord Milquetoast is a liar, he is a liar who kidnapped and tormented his own child, if you don’t believe me, ask Count Edward who was integral in the plot of kidnapping. Several months ago, my father also hired my former pirate crew to kill me._

_He is a selfish man who only cares for his status in this society, a status and reputation I now wish to destroy. He may read out this letter with an eye roll, pretending it’s not true._

_But it is._

_Father, I hate you. I will not forgive you for what you’ve done, and I will never be your son._

_Not so much of a ninny now, am I?_

_Worst regards,_

_Corazón de Ballena  
_

He folded the parchment and stuffed it in an envelope, he wrote nothing on the front of it and stuffed it into his pocket as he made his way off the ship, and started the trek up to his father’s estate, easily able to pick the lock on the gate and make his way up the path. It seemed like years ago now that he and Bladeor had first come through here.

He took a moment to pause before knocking on the door, softly at first but then louder. When the door opened, it was Winston looking back at him.

“Winston, where is my father?”

Winston let out a deep breath, as if he had been holding it in all his life “Is the young master going to have a fight?” 

“No, I simply need to deliver this letter to my father”

“He is in his office, sir, I can show you the-”

Corazón put up a hand to stop the man “Winston, I lived here. I know where his office is”

“Very well, sir” He said, moving aside to allow Corazón to come through, he heard Winston shut the door behind him as he made his way to his father’s office. The manor was quiet, and he retraced the steps of his younger self as he stopped in front of the door to his father’s office.

He knocked softly.

“Come in”

Corazón opened the door, his father was sat behind the desk and looking over parchment, he did not look up as his son entered the room. 

Corazón took a seat in front of the man and cleared his throat, setting the letter down “I wrote a letter for you.”

“I assume it isn’t complementary”

“I very much doubt you’ll find it is”

“Why have you come back?” His father asked “I had made the assumption you and your friends were leaving”

“We are, I simply had unfinished business to attend to”

His father gave him a curt nod and Corazón looked up at the ceiling, counting the ornate designs in the paint. He closed his eyes.

“I have three memories, sailing the seas, stealing gold, and trying to get your attention” He said “After all of this, you’re still going to ignore me?”

“I do not know what you wish me to say, Per…” He stopped himself “Corazón”

“All I wanted was for you to accept me”

“What does the letter say?”

“It says you’re a liar, and an asshole and I hate you”

“Vile language, but well deserved”

Corazón pushed up out of the seat and walked to the door “You’re not going to read it, are you?” 

“I already know what it says, Corazón”

Corazón stopped himself from turning the doorknob and looked back at his father, who looked up at him.

“For what it’s worth, you are still my son. And you did a much better job raising yourself than I could have done.”

“Goodbye, Father” Corazón said, turning away and walking out the office door, back down the grand staircase, back through the pathway, through the square he had seen all too much of, and onto his ship, where he rose the anchor himself and started sailing off on his own, as he pulled out of the port he set the sails and took a bottle from near the alcove underneath the steering wheel. His memory was hazy as he left the harbor, everything blended together, flashes of things that connected to other things he didn’t remember yet, it would take some time for the effects of the mind-altering spells to wear off completely.

He sat against the side of the ship, drinking from the nearly full bottle of rum, he raised it to the sky and screamed “TO HELL WITH YOU ALL”

Somewhere else, a man was interrupted by his house staff, who had come in offering him some tea. “Was that the young Lord, sir?”

“Yes, he is gone now. He’s leaving”

“Such a shame, though I suppose it’s for the best.. If you don’t mind me speaking out of turn, I believe the boy has gone wrong, he’s simply the worst kind of let down”

“No” Lord Milquetoast said, taking a sip of tea and setting it down “He’s a pirate”

**Author's Note:**

> While not stated in these chapters, it is alluded to that Lord Milquetoast has hired someone to perform a spell on his son, the spell I am using for this is called "Programmed Amnesia" but, a slightly altered version.


End file.
